Joe Biden’s Payroll Tax Cut Flip Flop

President Trump took action to institute a payroll tax holiday for American workers, along with other measures to provide financial relief for families and individuals impacted by the coronavirus. Democrats, who have been holding the American public hostage with their stimulus demands, are now arguing a payroll tax cut won’t stimulate the economy and will threaten Social Security benefits.

Of course, this is all untrue, and politics at its worst.

Democrats once heralded a payroll tax cut – when President Barack Obama was in office. But now they are trafficking in fear and outlandish lies, after President Trump took the exact same action as his predecessor.

Joe Biden’s campaign is out with a new ad in Florida, criticizing President Trump on his payroll tax cut. “Donald Trump stepped off the golf course and signed an executive action directing funding cuts for social security,” the ad’s narrator says. (This is a reference to Trump’s executive order on payroll taxes.)

Fact check: False.

In 2011, Biden wrote an op-ed praising a payroll tax cut, arguing the move “will create jobs”:

“This year, January shouldn’t be the month of the post-holiday doldrums. That’s because starting this week, across America, people will notice that, thanks to the payroll tax cut included in the tax package signed by the president in December, their paychecks will be bigger.

The tax cut decreases the federal payroll tax by 2 percentage points, increasing the take-home pay for American workers everywhere. That is real money for real people. For a couple making $60,000 each, their take-home pay will climb $2,400 in 2011. That is $2,400 more in their pockets, and $2,400 more that could go into our economy creating jobs and growth. That’s extra money they can use to help with bills and groceries, or even to upgrade appliances or make their home more energy efficient. All told, this tax cut will put $112 billion into the pockets of 155 million workers, who will then inject it back into the economy, spurring growth and creating jobs.

All of that spending, of course, will lead to an increase in demand for products made right here in the U.S., creating more manufacturing jobs and leading to more customers going into local businesses. Businesses across the country will get the extra economic push they need to expand and bring workers back on the payroll. Economists, experts and commentators from across the political spectrum agree that the payroll tax holiday is one of the most effective ways to spark real, lasting economic growth.”

As for the payroll tax cut’s effect on Social Security benefits? Zilch according to Biden:

“Critics have been spreading misinformation that the payroll tax cut will threaten the solvency of Social Security. That’s just plain wrong. The legislation creating the tax cut requires that any money the payroll tax would have provided to Social Security be replaced by other U.S. general revenue funds, protecting Social Security without an additional burden on taxpayers. The Social Security Trust Fund’s chief actuary as well as the executive vice president of the AARP have both spoken out, saying that the payroll tax cut will have no financial impact on Social Security.”

Nancy Pelosi once touted the “boost” for families from a payroll tax cut, and said she did not “worry” that it would hurt Social Security. Chuck Schumer, arguing on behalf of a payroll tax cut in 2011, said if those in Congress stalled a payroll tax cut, they were “putting politics before recovery.”

President Trump has made it clear he will always fight to protect Americans’ hard-earned Social Security benefits. Joe Biden can’t say the same. Biden has a long record of trying to freeze Social Security benefits, and he got caught lying about it. “When I argued we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well,” Biden once proudly boasted. “And I not only it tried it once. I tried it twice. I tried it a third time, and I tried it a fourth time.”

Biden is still trying to undermine Social Security. He wants to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and has even implied they deserve to receive Social Security benefits. Biden will always put what the radical left wants before protecting American seniors.