President Donald Trump has told Republicans that he has no intention of signing a COVID-19 relief package if it doesn't include a payroll tax cut, Politico reported Thursday.
Payroll tax cuts overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans and have been proven to do very little in actually helping save an economy, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy explained.
"GOP and Democratic congressional leaders are trillions of dollars apart in funding goals for the package, as well as how those funds will be spent," said Politico.
Democrats have put things in their version of the bill that they can use as leverage to negotiate as have Republicans. The GOP wants to overhaul liability laws, which Democrats want no part of because it would remove responsibility employers have to keep their workers safe from the virus. The Dems want unemployment benefits enhanced for state and local governments, which Republicans are against because they think the payments are incentivizing people from going to work when the reality is businesses are still closed.
Trump has been obsessed with the payroll tax for months, but it isn't likely to do much in the way of helping the millions of Americans who have no payroll to tax and desperately need money to pay rent or stay in their homes. For the third month in a row, the country had over 30 percent of Americans who couldn't afford to pay their rent or mortgages.
