Tim Griffin Voted To Raise Your Taxes

Congressman Tim Griffin voted today to raise your taxes.

Yep, that is correct.

Today, the Congress voted down a bipartisan Senate plan for a $1,000 payroll tax cut that would benefit roughly 160 million middle-class tax-payers. Griffin voted with the Republican majority that has a notorious habit of sticking it to the middle-class.

The Senate-passed bill would have extended the payroll tax cuts for two months. If the payroll tax issue isn’t resolved this month, then come January you’ll pay more in payroll taxes.

Thanks, Congressman Griffin!

Griffin offered a lame excuse for his vote by saying it would produce payroll complications for the people who hire them, according to the Arkansas Times blog. Griffin neglects to mention Senate Republicans voted down a one-year payroll tax cut extension.

Democratic Congressman Mike Ross has this to say about today’s vote: “Our number one priority right now must be stopping a tax increase that’s set to hit almost every working family in America on January 1st. I would prefer a full, one-year extension of the payroll tax cut, which I voted for last week, but died in the Senate. However, the two-month extension negotiated by the Senate is better than nothing, and doing nothing guarantees a major tax increase on almost every working family in January.”

Makes sense. Let’s pass the Senate bill — that essentially gave Republicans everything they wanted — and then work on a full-year extension.

Griffin doesn’t seem to understand that now is not the time to play politics with middle-class taxpayers’ pocketbooks. In fact, it’s never a good time to do that.

Tim Griffin’s time in office has shown that he votes lock-step with out-of-touch Congressional Republicans. Middle-class Arkansans be damned.