Payroll-Tax Cut Is the Working Part of Jobs Plan: Edward Glaeser
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Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- In response to our sputteringeconomy, President Barack Obama presented a new stimulus packagelast week, hopefully titled the American Jobs Act.
More than half of the plan’s $447 billion cost comes fromcuts to the payroll taxes, which fund Social Security andMedicare. This could increase the incentives to hire and work,and get money to poorer Americans. But to avoid making ourperilous fiscal situation worse, those cuts should be paid forwith future increases in the retirement age, and the plan’sproposed spending on infrastructure and unemployment insuranceshould be substantially reduced.