tying the payroll tax rate to the unemployment rate is a good idea...

[WCGreen]

Ezra Klein just talked about that when he was discussion countercyclical measures to take advantage of flush financial times and to help get through tough economic situations.

So the payroll tax would be higher when more people are working and lower when fewer people are working.

As an accountant, I like it. This helps out small business folks who want to keep their people employed when times are tough and it won't hurt when times are booming because the money is there to cover the increase.

As a progressive, I like it as well because it is looking at the economic cycles as a dynamic entity instead of a one size fits all...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I appreciate your explanation...

Does the Congress have to implement this?

I suspect they do.

Recommended.

[WCGreen]

2. Yes, congress would have to change the way the rates are structured...

[izquierdista]

3. Playing in the tidepools

When I was 3 and 4, I used to love to play in the tide pools, taking a bucket from this one and pouring it in that one. It was fun, until a wave from the ocean (the millionaires and billionaires who don't pay payroll taxes) came in and filled up all the tide pools.

[WCGreen]

4. It is a payroll tax and not a wealth tax....

And so it is for the people who work for a living...

[izquierdista]

5. By all means keep playing with the working people

Juggle their payroll tax around, make it slosh back and forth, while ignoring the vast piles of wealth taxed at the lower capital gains rates.

[WCGreen]

6. Capital Gains taxes go into the general fund and are spent on

programs, theoretically at least, that benefit the country as a whole.

Payroll taxes, on the other hand, are for disability and retirement payments.

If we taxed capital gains at 50% it still wouldn't make any difference to the Social Security and Medicare programs.