By taking executive action to suspend the collection of certain federal payroll taxes until the end of the year, President Trump opened a new front in his longtime battle against the two of the nation’s premiere safety net programs, Social Security and Medicare. The question, however, isn’t why he did it — the real issue is how much damage Trump is doing to America as we face a potentially unprecedented economic recession.
In deferring the collection of payroll taxes until the end of the year for those earning under roughly $104,000, Trump’s presidential memoranda will substantially impact the collection of funds that benefit the Social Security and Medicare reserve accounts. (the employee portion of payroll taxes is currently allocated as 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare). Trump says that if he is reelected he plans to forgive the deferred tax collections, and ultimately make them permanent. Yet in the interim his action is an effective short-term defunding of the two programs.
Aside from the questionable constitutionality of the actions by the President, the move is sparking bipartisan backlash. In a statement on Saturday, Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska had strong words for the President’s actions.
“The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop. President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law,” Sasse said. “Under the Constitution, that power belongs to the American people acting through their members of Congress.”
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 09: President Donald Trump arrives at the White House in Marine One on ... [+]
But beyond the politics of Trump’s actions, the financial impact of the decision is devastatingly real. Both Social Security and Medicare funds are already stretched thin, and are likely to be even more strained by the current economic crisis. Trump has also already made clear his plans to further weaken both safety-net programs, using his 2020 and 2021 budget proposals to signal his interest in substantial funding cuts to the two programs. The proposed cuts, that the Wall Street Journal has suggested could exceed $2 trillion over 10 years, would further weaken the nation’s premiere systems of social support during a coming decade in which more Americans are likely to need it.
On one level, it would appear that Trump’s actions are the cynical ploy of a President facing a perilous, and increasingly difficult, reelection campaign. It may also appear to be an inadvertent gift to his Democratic critics and presidential opponent, who might see Trump’s action as an opening to blast the President’s weakening of programs that have been seen as widely popular, and politically sacrosanct.
But the reality of the matter is that, by deferring the collection of payroll taxes and promising to make the action permanent, Trump is already hamstringing himself, or his successor, in a dangerous game of tax reduction gamesmanship — especially when America will likely need an even great injection in social welfare support. He is also playing class-based politics in the form of a shell-game by promising more financial support, while actually delivering less. Unfortunately, however, because many of the President’s followers often tend to rely more on the style of his tweets than the substance of his policies, it is likely that they won’t realize the sleight of hand until it is too late.
With unemployment at record high levels, personal savings plummeting, and a prospect of a potentially deadly and politically divisive winter that will only exacerbate the challenges facing America, Trump’s executive actions aren’t only short-sighted, but they are perilously short-changing the prospect of an American recovery at the same time they shatter constitutional norms.
For a President who has been anything but conventional, unilaterally weakening Social Security and Medicare is just one more unprecedented move by an unprecedented politician. Additionally, like many other moves by Trump during his summer of cruelty, his recent actions demonstrate an unchecked cruelty at a time of much needed compassion. That’s not just political...
It’s dangerous.
