Letter to the Editor: Reader wants Congress to support middle-class tax cuts

I urge your readers to contact their members of Congress who are discussing whether to extend the Bush tax cuts. If those payroll tax cuts are not continued, then those who take home a paycheck need to get ready to lose 2% of each paycheck beginning January 2012.

According to Senator Patty Murray, “the median Washington family has a yearly income of $56,479. Under the current 2% payroll tax cut, that family is saving approximately $1,130 per year on their tax bill. If the current tax cut expires, their yearly tax bill will go up by that amount. If the payroll tax cut is expanded to 3.1% (as proposed in Middle Class Tax Cut Act of 2011, a bill that would extend and expand the payroll tax cut for middle class workers), that family's savings will increase to $1,751 per year.”

We need to know whose side Congress supports – the 160 million workers and their families in this country or the 335,000 of the wealthiest members of society. People need to ask their Congressional Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Senators Murray and Cantwell if they support the working people in this country or the rich.

Duane Pitts

Odessa