Congressman Henry Cuellar has pledged to stand up for America’s middle- class families and small businesses by supporting the extension of payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits.

The payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits are set to expire on December 31^st, 2011.

“Now is the time to step it up for middle-class Americans and help those without a job stay afloat,” said Congressman Cuellar. “We cannot go back home to our districts without getting the job done and putting these critical dollars back in the pockets of the very same hard-working families who sent us to Washington to speak for them. We vowed to be their voice in Congress and now they need us to do the right thing.”

“Extending these cuts will also help our biggest job-creators—small businesses—with a payroll tax cut that in turn will help create jobs and in turn boost the economy,” said Congressman Cuellar.

Background Information  

Payroll Tax Cut

The current payroll tax cut provision lowered the employee portion of the Social Security payroll tax from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent for 2011. This is set to expire on December 31^st, 2011.

If extended, the tax cut would provide up to $1,500 for a middle income family, and 160 million middle-class Americans would be provided tax relief. The payroll tax cut also assists small businesses by cutting payroll taxes from 6.2 percent to 3.1 percent on the first $5 million in wages. If the payroll tax cut is not extended, an estimated 400,000 jobs would be lost in 2012.

In 2011, 11.4 million Texas benefitted from the tax cut, which put more money in their pockets and allowed for consumer spending that in turn boosts the economy.

The payroll tax cut was included in the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Jobs Creation Act of 2010, a bi-partisan bill that was introduced to prompt economic growth and create jobs.

Unemployment Insurance Benefits

The unemployment insurance benefits are currently up to 99 weeks, if they are not extended, they will be reduced to 26 weeks. Congress also has the option to choose to extend unemployment benefits anywhere between 26 and 99 weeks.

An estimated one-third of the 14 million unemployed Americans receive unemployment benefits, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Every $1 spent on unemployment insurance benefits yields $1.61 in economic activity, according to Moody’s Analytics.