Payroll taxes are the largest taxes most workers pay, and during the economic lockdown, many families have gone from earning two incomes to earning just one. That’s why Congress ought to provide an instant payraise for the frontline workers who are keeping this economy running by supporting Rep. Kevin Brady’s Support for Workers, Families, and Social Security Act. The bill forgives employee payroll taxes from September 1 to December 31 while keeping protecting Social Security’s trust funds.

Democrat leaders have supported payroll tax holidays in the past, but are now reversing their position by making radical claims that any payroll tax relief is an attack on Social Security.

The Support for Workers, Families, and Social Security Act is a responsible, commonsense relief effort that mirrors what Democrats supported in the past, but now they are putting politics ahead of relief. Just look at the record:

In 2011, then Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said a payroll tax cut would be “a victory for all Americans – for the security of our middle class, for the health of our seniors, and for economic growth and job creation.”

Then Vice President Joe Biden, in an op-ed for USA Today, wrote: “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.”

Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), said President Trump’s EO: “fail to provide relief for workers and families.” But, the Senator from Pennsylvania authored President Obama’s payroll tax cut in 2011. He said that a payroll tax cut would “at least provide working families with some certainty.”

And Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), said that failure to pass a payroll tax cut would be “[kicking] America’s middle class off the road.”

Today, however, the same Democrats are reversing their position simply to advance a political agenda. Democrat leaders oppose any bipartisan efforts to go further, claiming the only way forward is to provide tax cuts for the rich in blue states and bailouts for special interests.

Congress can help workers and small businesses. Democrat leaders claim they want to provide relief, but their refusal to work across the aisle shows otherwise. Instead of negotiating a compromise or even embracing policies they supported under a president of their own party, Democrat leaders went on a media campaign to criticize President Trump’s executive action to deliver relief.

Politics isn’t relief. Democrats should support a payroll tax holiday for American workers.

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