Karl W. Smith, Columnist

Congress Is Wrong About Trump’s Payroll Tax Cut

The pandemic will cause huge economic shocks, and a huge stimulus is needed to address them.

March 13, 2020 at 1:00 PM UTC

Karl W. Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Previously, he was vice president for federal policy at the Tax Foundation and assistant professor of economics at the University of North Carolina.

But will Congress listen?
Photographer: DOUG MILLS/AFP

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In his address to the nation about the coronavirus this week, President Donald Trump called on Congress to pass a payroll tax cut. It does not appear inclined to — and that could be a mistake of catastrophic proportions.

A payroll tax cut may be America’s best hope for preventing Covid-19 from sparking a long and painful recession. It would be a response not so much to the pandemic itself, which requires more spending on public health and short-term economic relief, but to the recession the pandemic will cause (and that that the market sees as all but inevitable).