Congress Must Extend Payroll Tax Cut and Unemployment Benefits

This week Congress will vote on extending and expanding the temporary payroll tax cut for 160 million American workers. And it may soon consider extending emergency unemployment benefits that support those workers and local economies hurt most by the Great Recession. Failure to extend these two critical measures by December 31 will depress U.S. economic output by about 1 percent and raise our risk of slipping back into recession. Congress must vote to extend both measures through 2012.

For more on this topic, please see:

• The Importance of Extending Both the Payroll Tax Cut and Emergency Unemployment Benefits