Math VS Politics
I am not a politician, just your below average taxpayer. I say this because my income like millions of others is far below the average that Washington DC says we get. This is what I have researched and bear in mind I am not an expert. We have 100 Senators and 435 Congressmen in our nation's capitol at an average cost Per each of 147,000 dollars per year. This is according to Wikipedia. This means we pay our leaders $91,350,000 per year (this is just the Senate and Congress). In lost man hours when they do not pass the payroll tax bill the American taxpayer loses 3 million dollars (based on lost wages for not passing because of party battles among our leaders in an attempt to make each other look bad) This does not include any committees that they form to break gridlock. So, every time they "boot the can down the road" they cost the taxpayers 3 million in lost taxes kicking it two months down the road. It seems to me that if they are truly interested in saving money they would get it right the first time instead of wasting the money and abusing every citizen in the US. and defrauding the public at large with party politics when they should be concerned with what creates jobs no matter if its Republicans or Democrats that create them. If they fail to pass this bill every person in the US that is working loses $2000 out of their pay per year. That does not sound so small as $40 out of a check each week. In addition to this figure they don't mention is that it will also affect your refund at the end of the year which will hit the taxpayer even deeper. Then you add in the rising cost of rents and all the other bills one incurs and we are that much farther from the American dream and that much closer to the American Nightmare. It must be nice to be so cavalier with millions of poor and middle class working people's lives when they are not going without anything. They need to wake up and realize who pays them and if there is nobody left to pay are they going to be in the soup kitchens and welfare lines and unemployment lines with us? Somehow I doubt it very much.