Remember when the Republicans did battle last year to extend the Bush Tax Cuts for another year. After all, tax cuts are good for the economy. We’ll let you keep YOUR money to do with what YOU want to and not entrust it to the GOVERNMENT. That was the Republican mantra.

A year has gone by, the economy is still anemic, and the election is coming up in 11 months.

Obama wants to renew the payroll tax holiday for another year and cut the tax by another 1.1 percent. In effect, this would put money directly back into people’s pocket within weeks.  If your annual salary were $50,000, this tax cut would result in an extra $1,550 in your pocket.

I am a middle class person. I would know what to do with another $1,550. I’d spend it on stuff I need or want and as a result I’d stimulate the economy.

I am also a “job creator.” I am a business owner of a business with 35 employees. So in effect I am maintaining 35 jobs. If my business got a tax cut “for the rich” – not me, mind you, but my business, I can tell you with certainty that it would not create one single additional job. I create jobs when I sell products and services that people want and need. I create jobs when I can get more orders than I got last year. I create jobs when I close more long-term contracts that provide security of cash flow.  Note – I didn’t say that my tax rate mattered whatsoever. Lower my business tax rate, and I have a few thousand dollars more in the bank at the end of the year. That bank balance has nothing to do with my ability to create jobs. Nothing.

But now the Republicans don’t approve the Obama tax cut proposal. They know that this would be a surefire way to put more money into the hands of the people, and it would stimulate the economy right way. The economy would improve, Obama would look good, and he’d get reelected.

But we can’t have that.

Even though the Republicans trumpeted tax cuts last year, they are not approving them this year. Now they only want tax cuts for the “rich” or job creators like me. But I already told you what effect that would have.

Worse. If Congress allows this year’s temporary tax cut to expire, most workers will experience an immediate pay reduction of 2 percent in January.

It sure looks to me like it’s more important to Republicans to win the election than it is for the economy and thus our country to get better.