No love for extending payroll tax holiday

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WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- A consensus is forming in the Democratic caucus of the U.S. Senate that the payroll tax holiday should not be extended for one more year, aides said.

Job creation has dropped to less than 100,000 new jobs per month for the past three months and Democrats have expressed concern about Social Security, The Hill reported Friday.

Despite the slowing economy, a growing number of Democrats say they favor ending the payroll tax holiday that cut employee payroll taxes from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent.

"We're running into this problem. The critics said, 'You'll never get rid of it. It's going to ultimately jeopardize the Social Security trust fund. The general revenue fund can't continue to subsidize it.' And we said, 'No, it's going to come to an end,'" said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois.

The argument could be made to extend the holiday to provide more stimulus to the economy, Durbin said.

"But in terms of using this against the Social Security trust fund, I think for credibility we have to keep our word," he added.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, facing a tough re-election bid, said he thought the payroll tax holiday and unemployment insurance should be extended.