President Donald Trump on Tuesday once again voiced his support for slashing the payroll tax — the primary funding mechanism for Social Security and Medicare — and said he would be calling for such a cut even if the U.S. were not currently in the midst of a nationwide public health and economic emergency.
“I would love to see a payroll tax cut,” Trump, who has repeatedly vowed to “save” Social Security, said at the end of the Coronavirus Task Force briefing Tuesday evening. “I think on behalf of the people it would be quick… There are many people who would like to see it as a permanent tax cut.”
Trump himself has also backed the idea of permanently cutting the payroll tax in talks with Republican lawmakers.
“The payroll tax cut would be a great thing for this country,” Trump added after claiming that congressional Democrats are standing in the way. “I would like to have it regardless of [the coronavirus crisis].”
Progressive advocacy group Social Security Works raised alarm about Trump’s remarks on Twitter, warning that the president’s “so-called ‘payroll tax holiday’ has nothing to do with helping workers and everything to do with undermining Social Security.”
“Trump wants to permanently cut payroll contributions — code for gutting Social Security’s dedicated funding as an pretext to demand benefit cuts,” the group said.
Watch Trump’s comments:
Trump takes a softball question from ultra-sycophantic OAN and then ends his portion of the news briefing pic.twitter.com/fy43aFd734
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 7, 2020
“What a confession,” Dan Froomkin, editor of Press Watch, said of Trump’s admission that he would be pushing for a payroll tax cut even in the absence of an economic crisis. “He just likes the idea of cutting payments to the Social Security system.”
As Common Dreams reported, the coronavirus stimulus legislation Trump signed into law late last month includes a provision allowing employers to stop paying into Social Security for at least the rest of the year. Progressives condemned the little-noticed provision as an “insidious” attack on Social Security that could imperil the New Deal-era program’s long-term funding.
“If Trump and Republicans retain power after November’s elections, they will make sure that corporations never repay Social Security,” Michael Phelan, deputy director of Social Security Works, said last month. “Then, Republicans will use the reduced trust fund as an excuse to destroy our Social Security system.”
The Washington Post reported Sunday that the Trump White House is considering proposing a payroll tax cut — as well as a capital gains tax cut — as part of an additional coronavirus stimulus package.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.