National Urban League to Congress: Act on Payroll Tax Cut Now

NEW YORK (December 13, 2011) -- National Urban League President Marc H. Morial today echoed President Obama’s call for Congress to act on the payroll tax cut before leaving for the holidays.
 
As communities of color continue to struggle with staggeringly high unemployment rates, Congress must do everything within its power to nurture the fledgling economic recovery,” Morial said. “The payroll tax expansion and extension is a necessary component of the recovery.”
 
Morial said the National Urban League stands firm in demanding that fairness and equity be included in the public debate surrounding debt reduction and efforts by the federal government to stimulate the nation’s economy.  A recent Treasury Department study found that only 1 percent of small businesses would be affected by the proposed surtax on millionaires that would fund the payroll tax cut.
 
“The evidence is clear that the payroll tax cut would help small businesses, not hurt them” Morial said.
 
Equally clear is that allowing the payroll tax cut to expire would slash working Americans’ paychecks by an average of  $934
 
“Hundreds of dollars in additional income can mean the difference between survival and an ever-worsening degree of financial hardship,” Morial said.
 
Morial noted that Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics has determined that If the temporary payroll tax cut and federal unemployment benefits are not extended, real GDP growth lag by a full percentage point in 2012, and there will be approximately a million fewer jobs by year's end.
 
“Slower growth and fewer jobs are the last thing any American, whether unemployed, underemployed, or working full-time, needs right now,” Morial said.