House Republicans on Tuesday rejected a Senate deal to temporarily extend the payroll tax cut, leaving the White House and Congress at an impasse and creating a showdown between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.
The tax cut is set to expire on December 31. Ending the tax break would cost the typical family about $1,000 a year, or $40 per paycheck.
Americans are telling the White House what $40 means to them. So we wanted to know if you agreed that $40 is a significant amount of money. We asked you if the end of the tax cut affect your family or if it would have little difference in your daily life. Here’s what you said:
Selena Campbell is a 21-year-old from Orlando, Florida, who works in Admissions Control at Full Sail University. She said that the money she may be losing each paycheck would help buy new shoes for her husband. He has to walk to work every day because they can’t afford a second car. But Campbell said that isn’t the only thing it would help out with.
“For me and my family, $40 is $10 less than what we pay for groceries every week,” she said. “There have been weeks, where we have only been able to spend $10 on groceries and have lived off of mac ‘n’ cheese and hot dogs.”
That money would also determine whether they could fully pay for their rent or car payments. It would also impact their healthcare, she said.
“$40 is what it costs for my medication so I can be a healthy wife, sister, daughter, mother,” Campbell said. “$40 a month, in the economy we are in right now, is everything.”
Tiffanie Young, a supervisor at a small rural hospital in Seaside, Oregon, says she saves $50 per paycheck for emergencies. The end to the payroll tax break would mean “I would probably have to stop doing that.” She said that for a lot of people $40 could help pay for groceries, gas and other necessary bills.
Courtesy Of CNN.COM
