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Zandi predicts that the U.S. economy will grow 2.6 percent in 2012
-- if Congress renews the tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits. Otherwise, he foresees 1.7 percent growth. He estimates the higher Social Security tax would reduce growth by 0.6 percentage point, and the loss of extended unemployment aid would subtract an additional 0.3 percentage point. Other economists have made similar estimates. Many noted that the Social Security tax cut helped the economy avoid a recession in 2011, after high gasoline prices squeezed households, Japan's earthquake reduced supplies to U.S. factories and budget cuts by state and local governments and a stalemate in Washington slowed growth. The extension of unemployment benefits helped, too. Most states provide up to 26 weeks of benefits. The program that's set to expire extended those benefits for up to 99 weeks in states with the highest unemployment rates. A proposal approved by the House last week would extend benefits for up to 79 weeks. Unless the long-term benefits are renewed, 2.2 million people will lose benefits by mid-February, and that number will rise to 3.6 million by the end of March. Analysts note that Americans of all income levels would be hurt by the loss of the payroll tax cut. Higher-income Americans receive the biggest share of tax breaks, so the end of the tax cut would reduce their pay most. Economists note that the highest-earning 20 percent of Americans contribute nearly 40 percent of consumer spending. And for 2012, the Social Security tax will apply to the first $110,100 of wages, up from $106,800 in 2011. Still, lower- and moderate-income taxpayers tend to spend more of any extra pay they receive. So the loss of a tax benefit tends to reduce their spending most sharply. Shana Albright, a fundraiser for a nonprofit health care company in St. Louis, said she would have to cut back on dining out and shopping. If she didn't have the tax break this month, she would have cut back on holiday gift buying, she said. "It's definitely my spending money," Albright said. Some analysts say they think election-minded lawmakers will renew the tax cut and long-term unemployed benefits sometime in 2012. If they did, they could also make the tax cut retroactive to Jan. 1. That might cause headaches for company payroll departments. But it would be a boon for struggling Americans. "After all the arguments, Congress will extend the two programs," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS
Global Insight. "I can't imagine that lawmakers will want to be blamed for
the economy being even weaker than it is now. They would be committing
political suicide.
[Associated
Press;
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