Income Tax Holiday Proposed in Congress

Yesterday, news came out about a proposal coming soon to Congress. House Republican Louie Gohmert of Texas is proposing that the remaining $350 billion be used to fund a national income tax holiday for the first two months of 2009.

Whereas the gas tax holiday that was proposed last year would have saved consumers only about $10 billion overall, this income tax holiday proposal could potentially save Americans thirty-five times that amount.

When the big "bailout" plan was passed by Congress earlier this year, it was against the will of the American people. Only 30% of Americans supported the bailout plan, while 45% opposed the bailout and 25% were undecided.

Something that turned even more people against the economic bailout was the fiasco at AIG. Everyone in the United States has probably heard about what the AIG executives did with their economic stimulus. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to send their employees to banquets, hotels, golf trips, and cocktails.

The idea behind the tax holiday proposal by Congressman Gohmert is instead of the government spending the bailout money and collecting it from us in taxes, why not just keep the bailout money and let us keep our paychecks for two whole months? This would let the average American taxpayer keep approximately $2,000 in that tax holiday period.

Another side benefit of the tax holiday plan that is being debated is the business side. If American workers do not have to pay FICA taxes for two months, then businesses will not have to pay their match, which could save corporations as much as $65 billion overall during the tax holiday.

According to the Human Events Website, Representative Gohmert also says that Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson has helped create this economy. Gohmert said, "The bailouts haven't worked so far because, for one thing, Paulson created a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom and gloom in the stock market. When the Secretary of the Treasury announces, for two weeks, that we could have a depression worse than the 1930's then, even though he spends the next six weeks saying 'no, it's not going to be that bad,' he has already created schizophrenia within the stock market."

Another quote from Congressman Gohmert details his anger at how things are currently going in our nation's capital with the economic bailout. "We need to give this money to the people who earned it. I am sick of Washington millionaires trying to decide which of their cronies should get the next wad of taxpayer money," Rep. Louie Gohmert continued. "Think about how much you would have if you didn't have any social security or income tax withheld from your pay check, or if you didn't have to pay those taxes for January and February! Americans could take and invest their own money where they believe it should go - to paying down mortgages, buying a new car, making credit card payments. The economy would get relief where it is needed the most. Why try to decide how to prevent foreclosures? Just give taxpayers their own money to catch up on their payments. Those in lower income brackets who are hit the hardest by the FICA tax would see huge money back, and then THEY could choose who should benefit from their hard earned money. Even the self-employed and small business owners would receive a fantastic amount of their own much-needed money, and they will be able to invest that back into their businesses and even create the ability to hire more people."

This tax holiday could be something that every American can get behind. While the stimulus checks were a hot topic, most people had no idea that the government spent $42 million dollars trying to get the stimulus checks to their recipients. Much of our tax dollars go in circles from us to our government and back again; however, this tax holiday could let us keep our own money for our own use, effectively negating another costly stimulus check. Now that a recession has been declared in the United States, an income tax holiday could be just the thing the country needs to get it back on its feet.