President Donald Trump signs an executive order deferring payroll tax withholdings for federal employees on Aug. 8. (Photo: AFP)
Sept. 15, 2020 by David Silverberg
Rep. Francis Rooney
Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) has again criticized President Donald Trump’s plan to defer payroll tax withholdings for federal employees until next year.
In a formal statement issued yesterday, Sept. 14, Rooney stated:
“I appreciate the administration’s attempt to bring financial relief to hardworking Americans during this difficult time, but this payroll tax deferral is not a good solution. It presents a short-term remedy that will engender long-term problems beyond the pandemic and could end up disrupting the historical employee-employer cost sharing for payroll taxes.
“It is impractical to expect that these deferred amounts could be paid by employees next April. The highest likelihood is that the government reimburses them, or worse, that employers are required to pay the employees’ part as well as their own.
“This order is not an appropriate means of repairing our damaged economy because however these deferred payments might be resolved, there will be serious damage to the employee - employer relationship at the very time when we need to strengthen it to provide economic opportunity for more Americans.”
Rooney initially tweeted his opposition to the President’s executive order deferring the withholdings on Sept. 3. The new statement formalizes and emphasizes Rooney’s objections.
On Aug. 8, Trump issued a memorandum to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin deferring the taxes for 1.3 million federal employees, which he has the authority to do. However, while the withholding is deferred for 2020, the taxes will have to be paid by the employees next year and would result in smaller paychecks.
To date there has been no public White House response or response from any other Republicans to Rooney’s criticism.
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© 2020 by David Silverberg