GOP Payroll Tax Holiday Proposal Re-Invents Insult With Its Millionaires’ Unemployment Provision

Indeed.  Here’s an example of the GOP’s expertise with the insult as well as its talent for underestimating its country’s anger about our social and economic situation. This example arises from the House bill, HR 3630, the ‘Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011’ (the payroll tax holiday being now in combat with its Senate version).  Passed by the House on December 13, 2011, it included a proposal that ought to be an unforgettable marker for the topsy turvy times we live in. . .
Among the sneers at the poor and middle class that the GOP has tossed as casually as lint from a sport coat, the provision below may rank among the more craven insults to pass for serious legislative language. Listed, laughably, among “Offsets,” it’s surreal:

SEC. 5301. ENDING UNEMPLOYMENT AND SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM BENEFITS FOR MILLIONAIRES.

(b)  Ending Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits for Millionaires-

(1) IN GENERAL- Section 6 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2015) is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(r) Disqualification for Receipt of Assets of at Least $1,000,000- Any household in which a member receives income or assets with a fair market value of at least $1,000,000 shall, immediately on the receipt of the assets, become ineligible for further participation in the program until the date on which the household meets the income eligibility and allowable financial resources standards under section 5.’.

(2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS- Section 5(a) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2014(a)) is amended in the second sentence by striking `sections 6(b), 6(d)(2), and 6(g)’ and inserting `subsections (b), (d)(2), (g), and (r) of section 6′. 

Note, this provision follows section (a) of the new Title 26 (IRS) Section 5395 that would be created if the House had its way in the apparently upcoming House-Senate conference. Section (a) imposes an additional tax on “excess income,” also insulting to working Americans and the unemployed. [See that provision here]

Perhaps the GOP ought to be more careful and less arrogantly confident. The American people are more carefully listening now.

In reading through quotations related to “insult,” Cordell Hull, FDR’s Secretary of State, said it well:

The American poor and middle class today form a churning river of humanity;  a river both deep and wide, approaching flood.

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