Thursday, December 22, 2011

A Pair Of Jacksons From Your Paycheck

The White House is wisely asking American workers what losing $40 in take home pay from their bi-weekly paycheck would mean to them as House Republicans are about a week away from raising taxes on 160 million Americans.

House Republicans on Tuesday rejected a Senate deal to temporarily extend the payroll tax cut, leaving the White House and Congress at an impasse and creating a showdown between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.

The tax cut is set to expire on December 31. Ending the tax break would cost the typical family about $1,000 a year, or $40 per paycheck.

Americans are telling the White House what $40 means to them. So we wanted to know if you agreed that $40 is a significant amount of money. We asked you if the end of the tax cut affect your family or if it would have little difference in your daily life. Here's what you said:

Selena Campbell is a 21-year-old from Orlando, Florida, who works in Admissions Control at Full Sail University. She said that the money she may be losing each paycheck would help buy new shoes for her husband. He has to walk to work every day because they can't afford a second car. But Campbell said that isn't the only thing it would help out with.

"For me and my family, $40 is $10 less than what we pay for groceries every week," she said. "There have been weeks, where we have only been able to spend $10 on groceries and have lived off of mac 'n' cheese and hot dogs."

I know for me, $40 a paycheck is gas money to get to work, plain and simple.   The new job's a longer commute, and that payroll tax cut for me makes up for the extra gas money.  I'm not totally screwed without it, but a thousand bucks over the course of a year is still nothing to laugh at.

And yes, as if I didn't need another reason to not vote for Republicans in 2012, this one's personally costing me money.  It's going to personally cost you money too, I'm betting.  So what would losing $40 in your paycheck mean you and your family would have to cut back on?

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