Chris Rose: Sign petition for payroll tax holiday
OPINION
If you’re just tuning in, Congress has shown us two things this coronavirus season: they know how to protect their own interests (see https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/488593-four-senators-sold-stocks-before-coronavirus-threat-crashed-market), and they know how to spend Trillions (that’s trillions with a capital T: https://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/commentary/how-big-the-covid-19-cares-act-relief-bill) of dollars that they don’t have. Adding insult to injury, the majority of relief in these packages went to mega corporations (think: Occupy Wall Street on steroids), along with museums, of all things.
Not only did they not have the cash to finance anything contained in either of the two monumental and egregiously large spending bills passed so far this year, but official estimates are projecting that they also won’t be able to account for the massive additional deficit created by this legislation for the next, oh, 10 years or so. That’s if they drastically modify spending over the next two presidential election cycles… I think that’s highly unlikely.
Meanwhile, our economy is in shambles. Local and State Emergency Orders and requirements have placed millions of Americans in the out-of-work column and set limitations on businesses for when they can hire them back. By the way, 50% of capacity generally results in 50% of staff needed to operate the venue.
The coronavirus outbreak may be beginning to taper off, but I fear the lasting impact of the shutdown will last the remainder of the year–if not longer.
As such, in order to encourage both discretionary (stimulating!) spending and an increase in the number of jobs available, I am proposing another economic stimulus package–this time not bailouts for billion-dollar companies–one that is actually covered and would go instantly to you, the worker bee.
I propose a payroll tax holiday, one that will last until the end of the year, when our national economy is supposed to be booming again. Here in Florida, we usually see two similar minuscule versions of this each year: once for hurricane season preparedness, and once for Back to School. When you don’t have to pay sales tax on goods, the price of these products falls and people are incentivized to purchase in excess.
Imagine being able to keep 100% of your earnings in your paycheck. Wages rise by default; folks are incentivized to work more. Business owners see opportunity to expand operations because staff is willing to work longer hours. And more applications are pouring in to human resources because maybe you didn’t want to take that sort of job for regular pay, but now that 25% isn’t taken out of your check before you even see the fruits of your labor, you’re a lot more… what was that word? Incentivized.
But, but, what about the government losing all that revenue, wouldn’t that result in folks owing a tremendous amount next spring to our favorite monstrosity, the I.R.S.? It’s a fair question. And the fairest answer I can give on this is yes, some people would need to budget for their tax bill coming up in 2021. Budgeting is something most adults have to do, but Congress hasn’t learned how yet. It would hopefully force the issue that we the people just cannot sustain their reckless spending every year, leading to mounting deficits and a ballooning national debt. Are we to $26 trillion yet? Call your congressperson. usdebtclock.org
But, but, what about programs like Social Security and Medicare, wouldn’t they suffer from not being funded for five months? Personally, I’m not too excited about being compelled to pay for something I’m probably not going to be able to use, and Americans should be allowed to opt out of these socialist excrescences. Land of the free, or so I’m told. At any rate, if Congress is concerned about protecting either one of these ponzi schemes, maybe they could be incentivized to stop borrowing (stealing, really, because we’re not paying this debt back) from both.
My fellow American, I want to encourage your participation in helping our country put back the pieces from this recession by signing and sharing this petition on We The People.
I hope you could be…
incentivized.
Chris Rose II is currently elected on the Rules Committee for the Libertarian Party of Florida
The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com.