This is all a show. He's not signing any EOs.

[mobeau69]

Only Congress can appropriate money. He’s sooooo fucking desperate.

[unblock]

1. He might be able to stop collecting payroll taxes

Or at least try, and tie it up in courts for a while....

[panader0]

2. That won't help the 40 million that no longer have paychecks.

[unblock]

3. Correct, and it would harm social security and Medicare.

So republicans consider it a win-win.

[mobeau69]

5. Dems need make the people aware of that. The average dumpster

can’t make the connection and the young ones just say that SS won’t be there for me anyway. I’m like if you keep voting puke it won’t be! Dumbasses. So many dumbasses!

[Mariana]

6. "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises..."

Article I, Section 8.

The Congress has laid the payroll taxes, and has provided for the collection of same.

[unblock]

8. Yes, but the irs is a part of the executive branch

The executive branch is, of course, supposed to faithfully execute the laws, but as a practical matter, if they stop collecting payroll taxes, it may be a while before the Supreme Court tells them they can't do that. Even then, it's not clear that Donnie would listen to them.

[cojoel]

7. Technically an executive order can only defer the collection of taxes

The gimmick is that he will also promise to sign legislation to forgive the tax that was not collected if/when Congress were to pass it. As far as I know such legislation would have to originate it the House, so there is no guarantee such a bill would ever reach his desk to sign. There must be some expectation of overwhelming pressure on the Democratic Leadership in the house to do something to not screw the employees. But, the employees won't be the ones on the hook.

So if he goes that route and there is no bill, the employers will be on the hook for both the employer portion and the employee portion (that should have been collected via payroll withholding) of the social security tax when the deferred period is over. So unless there is clear legislative clarity at the time, most employees are going to continue to withhold that tax, and either pay it to the government when it becomes due or return the employees' share to employees if it is legally forgiven.

If there was to be a bill from the house, I would like it to look like this: Every dollar of social security tax not paid during this "reduction" will be made up for by a temporary surcharge on the highest tax bracket for all categories at whatever rate necessary to recover all of the social security tax not collected. Such money would be placed in the social security trust fund, just as if the tax was paid by the employee and the employer on the employees behalf. That will be about as popular with the Republicans in the Senate as a facemask at a coronavirus super-spreader event but it will totally change the leverage in negotiations.

Most of the info from the first two paragraphs came from this article: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/06/why-you-might-not-see-a-payroll-tax-cut-even-if-trump-demands-it.html

[unblock]

9. Bills increasing taxes originate in the house,

But I believe tax cuts can originate in either.

Regardless, this is mostly a formality. Any law has to pass both houses, and if they are in agreement, it's usually a simple matter to have the house pass the final version first if need be. Rarely, it can be a problem if the vote is very close and if the makeup of Congress changes, as was the case in passing Obamacare.


As for the payroll tax, yes, I think Donnie's idea is that if the payroll tax is not collected for a while, then there's no going back and collecting for the missing months, and in fact they'll smear the return to normal as a "democrat tax hike."

[Gothmog]

4. Bedminister super spreader event

Link to tweet

?s=20