One of the best ways for President Obama to immediately stimulate the economy is to provide the American people with a payroll tax holiday. By relieving the American people of having to pay any payroll taxes for one year, this would be a real savings for them that they could begin to enjoy immediately.  If you would think about it for a minute, would you not enjoy bringing home closer to what your gross income is? With a payroll tax holiday for one year, this would give you the opportunity to enjoy more of your hard earned money.

Now, I’m not suggesting that a payroll tax holiday is the panacea to America’s economic woes, but I do know that this would help the majority of the American people to experience positive economic growth. I am also not suggesting that all we need to get our economy moving is simply more and more tax cuts, but tax cuts have to be a dimension of any serious effort to aid the economy in recovering. President Obama needs to extend the Bush tax cuts and don’t let them expire. If President Obama lets the Bush tax cuts expire, this would impose one of the largest tax cuts on the American people in American history.

In a struggling economy, the worst thing that anyone can do right now is raise taxes on the American people. If the Bush tax cuts are not extended, the economy could sink so deeply that it may take even more years for the economy to recover. I am afraid that without extending the Bush tax cuts that many small businesses will be forced to lay off many workers and/or close down. Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. We don’t need to do anything that would harm our small businesses.

We need our local, state, and federal leaders talking about and passing pro-growth legislation that will help to significantly ameliorate our economy. They need to be talking about serious policies to help create more jobs for the American people. It is time out for all of this partisanship—people need jobs! We need to put the American people back to work. I don’t care if you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent—I will vote for you if you are going to help to create jobs and reduce the tax burden on the American people.

If any politician is not talking about reducing your taxes and creating jobs, then be sure to vote him or her out. Tell your elected officials to support a payroll tax holiday for one year and to support pro-growth policies and legislation.

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison