Washington D.C. – Senator Ron Johnson (WI) released the following statement regarding today’s Senate vote on a temporary extension of the current payroll tax rate:

“I do not want to see anyone’s taxes raised at this time, but I believe reducing funding for Social Security by extending the payroll tax holiday is bad policy. It has not helped boost economic growth, and it replaces Social Security revenues with more borrowing. This is the last thing we need considering that Social Security already has an unfunded liability of $18.7 trillion.

“I support tax relief for low and middle-income taxpayers - but not by starving Social Security revenues. Now that the Senate has voted to extend the payroll tax holiday for two months, let's use that time to craft an alternate tax relief package that targets middle-to-lower income workers. A properly-targeted package would be smaller and easier to offset with credible spending cuts - instead of increased fees on taxpayers.

“The proposal the Senate passed this morning is typical Washington politics, intended to produce short-term political gains. Without structural reform, we will bankrupt Social Security, and we will bankrupt our nation.  It is long past time to act responsibly and begin to seriously address and reduce our debt and deficits.”

###