Democrats criticized President Donald Trump for an executive order that created a payroll tax holiday from Aug. 1 through the end of the year, but they praised former President Barack Obama when he instituted similar tax cuts.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she agreed with Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse that the president’s executive orders were “unconstitutional slop.”
“I associate my remarks with what the senator says, they’re ‘unconstitutional slop,'” Pelosi said Sunday on CNN. “Right now we want to address the needs of the American people. As my constitutional advisers tell me they’re absurdly unconstitutional.” (RELATED: GOP Sen. Ben Sasse Calls Trump’s Executive Orders ‘Unconstitutional Slop,’ Sparks Backlash)
However, when a payroll tax cut extension was passed under Obama, Pelosi called it “a victory for all Americans.”
“The American people spoke out clearly and, thanks to President Obama’s leadership, 160 million Americans will continue to receive their payroll tax cut – nearly $40 per paycheck in the pockets of the average family,” Pelosi said in a statement. “I salute the work of the unified House Democratic caucus on behalf of the American people.”
Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer issued a joint statement with Pelosi Saturday night condemning the executive orders as “unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements” that “slash the unemployment benefits that millions desperately need and endanger seniors’ Social Security and Medicare,” The Hill reported.
When Congress was debating passing similar tax cuts under Obama in 2011, Schumer said that “one way or another, there will be a vote on extending these tax cuts.”
“Republicans will have to stand up to the fact if they oppose it they are for tax cuts for the rich but not for the middle class,” Schumer said in 2011 according to the New York Times.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden also criticized Trump’s executive order, saying that it doesn’t provide the “protections or guarantees that the Social Security Trust Fund will be made whole” like Obama’s payroll tax cuts did.
In 2011 President Obama said it was “inexcusable” not to boost the economy with a payroll tax holiday.
Biden now says that it is “a reckless war on social security.” pic.twitter.com/vSk8CpixhF
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) August 9, 2020
“He is laying out his roadmap to cutting Social Security,” Biden said. “Our seniors and millions of Americans with disabilities are under enough stress without Trump putting their hard-earned Social Security benefits in doubt.”