Can the GOP be tough on the rich? How about no food stamps?
(Read article summary)The White House on Thursday rejected as insubstantial a GOP proposal to curtail unemployment insurance and food stamps for the rich as an offset for extending the payroll tax cut.
New York
Who says Republicans can’t be hard on millionaires and billionaires?
On Wednesday, Sen. Dean Heller (R) Nevada proposed means testing of the ultra-rich for eligibility for unemployment insurance and food stamps as well as raising their Medicare premiums.
The income garnered by keeping people like Warren Buffett from using the SNAP program (food stamps) would be part of an effort to pay for a one-year extension of the 2 percent payroll tax cut, which will cost over $120 billion.
In fact the US Department of Agriculture already does require means testing in order to receive food stamps.
On Thursday, White House press spokesman Jay Carney called the Republican proposal “gorilla dust.”
Washington observer Peter Davis, a former congressional staffer who writes a blog, Davis Capital Investment Ideas, says the legislation is a very “cosmetic” offset to a $122 billion payroll tax cut.
