The right-leaning Save Our Country Coalition, which was created in March to promote reopening the economy, launched a five-figure ad campaign on Tuesday backing a payroll tax cut in the next coronavirus relief package.
“The best way to help the 20 million unemployed Americans is to get them a job,” said Stephen Moore, the co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, who belongs to the coalition.
“Congress needs to start rewarding work and stop incentivizing unemployment and government dependency. A payroll tax cut will create millions of new jobs,” said Moore, who is also a contributor to the Washington Examiner.
President Trump has called on Congress to include a payroll tax cut in a relief package since the pandemic began, but the idea has little support among conservative lawmakers.
In fact, Senate Republicans have refused to include a payroll tax cut in their latest relief package.
“There are some differences of opinion on the question of the payroll tax cut and whether that’s the best way to go,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told reporters last week.
The coalition hopes to sway lawmakers into backing a payroll tax cut by running ads on a variety of online streaming platforms that target Republicans and Independents nationwide.
One of the ads includes several workers saying “show me the money” in regard to cutting the payroll tax, which would increase take-home pay.
The ad also contends that a payroll tax cut is the most efficient way to provide relief to workers, some of whom have suffered salary cuts and need the extra money that a payroll tax cut would provide.
So far, it is unclear if the coalition is swaying senators to support the provision, according to Jason Pye, the vice president of legislative affairs for the organization.
“I think it is tough to say because the understanding I have is Leader McConnell and Chairman Grassley … don’t want to move forward with it,” Pye said, who is also vice president of legislative affairs for the free market group FreedomWorks.
Senate Republicans beyond Grassley and McConnell also oppose including a payroll tax cut in their relief package.
“I’m not a particular fan of that,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, told the Washington Post.
Republican Sens. John Barrasso from Wyoming and Susan Collins from Maine are also not fans of the tax break.
Democrats also don’t support the measure. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden from Oregon earlier this month said the tax cut would benefit people who have jobs instead of helping those who are out of work.
“A payroll tax cut would do nothing to help the 20 million workers who have lost their jobs and little for those working significantly reduced hours,” he said.
The Save Our Country Coalition includes members from other conservative organizations, such as the FreedomWorks Foundation, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Tea Party Patriots, and the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
