Rep. Todd Akin (AP Photo via DayLife)
— President Obama wrapped up a three-day bus tour of eastern states Wednesday, a tour on which he continued to push Congress to pass his jobs.
“We’re going to chop it up into some bite-sized pieces and give them another chance to look out for your jobs instead of looking out for their own jobs,” Obama said at a stop in North Carolina.
Obama hopes that many Republicans who had supported similar proposals individually in the past will face political pressure to support at least part of his plan this time around. (The entire plan voted down in both chambers last week.)
Rep. Todd Akin, a St. Louis Tea Party Republican running for U.S. Senate, said one of Obama’s jobs bill’s signature proposals, cutting payroll taxes on nearly every worker, is “about as insane as his other policies.”
“You’ve got a Social Security system that is financially near broken. We’ve made promises to people and they’re depending on this money coming in, and what is he doing on a system that is already teetering? Well, he is going into the source of revenue,” Akin said, in an interview with PoliticMo last week.
“Social Security is already in trouble, and he is defunding it. What’s the logic of that? I think it is irresponsible, and I think it is dishonest,” he said. “Other than that, it is a bad idea.”
Akin said he is in support of cutting corporate taxes, but is not sure about a tax cut supported by Democrats that would, in exchange for a percentage cut, eliminate statutory loopholes.
“I don’t know exactly what the ‘loopholes’ are, but I do know one thing: that is, having the second highest corporate tax rate in the world is not very smart,” he said.
Akin may find himself in agreement with the chairman of Obama’s Jobs Council Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, who called for a corporate tax holiday to encourage corporations to transfer billions in cash from banks across the globe back into the United States.
“If I were president for a day,” Akin said, “what I would do is I’d give the corporations that have a lot of money sitting overseas a year or two window to move that cash back at a very low tax rate.”
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Entire Q & A with Akin:
Q: The president’s been campaigning on the Jobs Bill, what do you make of the line about payroll tax cuts and social security tax cuts?
A: “I think it is about as insane as his other policies. Let’s break this down, exactly what he’s doing, cause this is a bunch of hocus pocus. You’ve got a Social Security system that is financially near broken. We’ve made promises to people and they’re depending on this money coming in, and what is he doing on a system that is already teetering? Well, he is going into the source of revenue — comes from the employers and employees. So, if he removes employees paying some percentage of their wage into Social Security, after you do that for a while, people will say, I don’t want to have to do that anymore. So, politically, you’re making it harder to fund Social Security. So Social Security is already in trouble, and he is defunding it. What’s the logic of that? I think it is irresponsible, and I think it is dishonest. Other than that, it is a bad idea.”
Q: And somebody asked you about the corporate tax cut, and that was something that you may be willing to support depending on the details of it?
A: “Oh yeah. I’m okay with a corporate tax cut. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen a tax cut that I don’t like. They claim that there are these loop holes in the corporate taxes. Now the loopholes were voted on, so I don’t know exactly what the ‘loopholes’ are, but I do know one thing: that is, having the second highest corporate tax rate in the world is not very smart. If I were president for a day, what I would do is I’d give the corporations that have a lot of money sitting overseas a year or two window to move that cash back at a very low tax rate and move that money back into our country.