Obama Appeals for Public Outcry on Payroll Taxes (ACTION: Twitter #40dollars)

Two months after successfully marshaling public support to extend a payroll tax cut for all Americans, President Obama today is attempting to do it again.

At the White House this morning, Obama will showcase supporters who were among the thousands that spoke out online and over social media in December to pressure Congress to compromise.

But the deal was only temporary. Taxes will rise on 160 million Americans at the end of the month unless lawmakers act again, and congressional negotiators remain at impasse.

“Your voices changed the debate and reminded Washington what was at stake,” Obama says in a video posted on the White House website. ”Well once again I need you. We all need you to speak out.”

The administration hopes to spark a social media blitz, with average Americans concerned about their paychecks taking to Twitter — using the #40dollars hashtag — or posting their opinions on Facebook or the White House blog.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say they believe the payroll tax holiday should and will be extended through the end of the year, saving a family making about $50,000 a year $40 per paycheck.

But whether they can agree on the fine print in the next 14 days remains unclear.

At issue is how to offset the cost of the tax cut and whether to extend unemployment insurance benefits and deal with the Medicare “doc fix” at the same time.

House Republican leadership Monday proposed as a last resort passing the payroll tax cut extension alone, through the end of the year, and dealing with the other issues separately.

But Democrats are reluctant to consider the items separately, believing that doing so would compromise passage of all the items.

Couldn’t this be considered to be the first step in the privatization of Social Security?

Why can’t we get a few republicans to stand up and thank the president for finally seeing the light and allowing us to keep more of our own money to invest in private IRA’s.

$1,040 / year into a roth IRA, gold, lead...

Dear Abby,

My husband has a long record of money problems. He runs up huge credit-card bills and at the end of the month, if I try to pay them off, he shouts at me, saying I am stealing his money. He says pay the minimum and let our kids worry about the rest, but already we can hardly keep up with the interest.

Also he has been so arrogant and abusive toward our neighbors that most of them no longer speak to us. The few that do are an odd bunch, to whom he has been giving a lot of expensive gifts, running up our bills even more.

Also, he has gotten religious. One week he hangs out with Catholics and the next with people who say the Pope is the Anti-Christ, and the next he’s with Muslims..

Finally, the last straw. He’s demanding that before anyone can be in the same room with him, they must sign a loyalty oath. It’s just so horribly creepy!

Can you help?

Signed,

Lost

Dear Lost,

Stop whining, Michelle. You’re getting to live in the White House for free, travel the world, and have others pay for everything for you. You can divorce the jerk any time you want. The rest of us are stuck with the idiot for at least another year!

Signed,

Abby

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