Michael R. Strain, Columnist

Don’t Cut the Payroll Tax. Just Send People Money.

Here’s a better way to goose the coronavirus economy.

March 11, 2020 at 6:30 AM EDT

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

What Americans need now.
Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

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President Donald Trump announced on Monday that his administration would no longer oppose stimulus measures to support the economy as financial markets reel from the coronavirus outbreak. On Tuesday he reportedly told Republican senators that the centerpiece of his stimulus proposal would be a payroll-tax holiday through the November election, along with relief for affected industries.

Senate Republicans don't seem enthusiastic about a cut in the payroll tax, which is the amount withheld from paychecks for Social Security. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is reportedly opposed, and other conservative GOP senators surely feel the same.

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