On August 6, President Trump tweeted that the White House was preparing an executive order which would temporarily suspend the payroll tax.
An idea first proposed by Stephen Moore and Phil Kerpen in the Wall Street Journal on August 2, President Trump’s order would direct the Department of the Treasury to suspend the collection of payroll tax dollars.
While Democrats, the media, and even some Republicans have expressed their disapproval towards a potential suspension of the payroll tax, this move will do more to revitalize the American economy than any trillion-dollar stimulus package. A payroll tax suspension would greatly benefit our country’s frontline workers, resulting in an immediate raise for millions of American employees.
Opponents insist that this measure would do nothing for the unemployed, but this could not be further from the truth. President Trump’s executive order would put cash back in the hands of businesses that would otherwise be confiscated by the federal government, thereby enabling companies to hire additional workers.
Suspending the payroll tax would also add less to the national debt than any proposed stimulus bill, all while eliminating the need for trillions of dollars in unnecessary spending.
Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have dragged their feet and refused to take bold steps to put the American people back to work. While politicians often pay lip service to our “essential employees,” they have failed these individuals by continuing to disincentivize work, all while encouraging government dependency.
There’s even precedent for declaring such an executive order. The IRS deferred payment of income taxes from April to June of this year. Therefore, this payroll tax holiday is essentially a payroll tax deferral. What’s needed for sake of posterity is the passage of a bill into law that would protect workers and forgive such payments down the road. If Democrats in Congress refuse to stick up for America’s workers and pass such a bill, Trump could add the issue into the mix this November.
President Trump’s decisive action will result in robust economic growth, and a pay boost to those who need it most in this critical period. While Congress debates how many hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts for blue states should be included in the next relief package, the White House is delivering on its promise to make a rapid economic recovery a reality.
Politicians who decry the free market and insist that the government lead us through this economic downturn will maintain that endless spending is the only way to truly assist the American people. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, American workers — even frontline workers — have been forgotten in the federal government’s abysmal economic response. Rather than aiming to create jobs and give a pay raise to frontline employees, politicians have used the pandemic as a justification for useless spending.
President Trump was correct when he pushed Congress to cut the payroll tax, and he deserves to be commended for recognizing the need to lawfully exercise his presidential authority at this critical moment.
The American people will be grateful to President Trump for suspending the payroll tax. This executive order will help eliminate the need for additional federal spending, and greatly assist the American economy in its recovery.
Noah Wall is an Executive Vice President at FreedomWorks
