Article courtesy of MIRS News Service
(DETROIT) – Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayedsaid Monday he wants to eliminate the employer-side payroll tax, believing business owners should not pay more when they hire more people.
“Every business pays an extra tax for the number of people that they employ. I don’t think that should exist,” El-Sayed said Monday afternoon. “Why? Because right now we’re watching as AI is moving through the economy, and we’re penalizing businesses that employ people. I want businesses to employ people instead of employing AI.”
Inside the Detroit Public Theater, El-Sayed participated in a live podcast recording with Jemele Hill, a Detroit native and host of the “Spolitics” podcast series discussing racial issues, sports and politics.
Based on conversations with her friends and family in Detroit, Hill said she believes El-Sayed continues to have a base problem in the city, but doesn’t think it’s impossible to overcome it.
“He’s combating an onslaught of people trying to focus so much on his religion, wanting to focus on things that have nothing to do with the issues that are important,” Hill said to MIRS. “We know here in Detroit there’s always been tension between Arab and Black communities. He’s going to be up against some of that.”
El-Sayed mentioned eliminating employer-side payroll taxes when asked how he would help reduce costs to ensure small businesses can remain financially sustainable.
He did not specify which employer-side payroll taxes he would eliminate. Employers pay a share of Social Security and Medicare taxes, as well as unemployment taxes.
Other proposals El-Sayed offered ranged from allowing college athletes to unionize to subjecting billionaires to an extra tax worth 8% of their wealth to “return $4.6 trillion a year back to the economy.”
Hill questioned El-Sayed about his “populist message,” which pushes for “Medicare for All” and “Money Out Of Politics.” Concerns have been expressed by Detroit-based political observers that El-Sayed’s populist ideas do not connect to Black voters.
El-Sayed responded by saying he won’t pander to anybody “because it’s unbecoming and it’s disingenuous.” He described his experiences as an Arab American being approached by a “well-meaning politician” who said they fasted in solidarity with him during political events.
“I was like, ‘You think I’m hungry? There’s good food here,'” El-Sayed said. “Don’t you dare come here and say you fasted in solidarity with me, and then watch people who look like me get bombed to smithereens by our tax dollars and tell me that you’re somehow in solidarity with me. I need you to show up when the going gets hard.”
He talked about the focus he could bring on Black maternal health, noting that his own grandmother lost two babies. While serving as Detroit’s health officer from 2015 through February 2017, he said he worked alongside Leseliey Welch, the co-founder of Birth Detroit, which provides home-like birthing services with certified nurse-midwives, education and health screenings.
He added that he was involved in Wayne County expansion efforts for Rx Kids, the program created in low-income communities to provide cash payments to families during pregnancy and the first six to 12 months of a baby’s life.
“People ask me why I fight so hard for ‘Medicare for All.’ Because right now, if you’re a Black mother in America, the chances that you are on Medicaid are about three times as high. Medicaid reimbursements are at about half the rate. So what happens is, above and beyond the racism that a mom is going to see just because of the color of her skin, it’s the determination because of her insurance status,” El-Sayed said. “If you’ve got a provider who simply just won’t provide for you, or thinks of you as a second-class healthcare citizen, you’re not going to get the same quality care.”
He added that “Medicare for All” – a proposal he sees as making everyone “equal healthcare citizens immediately” – could change the kind of providers who exist in Detroit as well.
For example, he said insurance companies will provide “sweetheart” reimbursement deals to large healthcare systems, but “Medicare for All” would create more opportunities for smaller facilities.
Monday’s event was hosted by MoveOn, a progressive public policy advocacy group dedicated to building up “multiracial grassroots power.” It was also in partnership with Detroit Action, a racial justice advocacy group.
On Saturday, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers opened a campaign office on the corner of 7 Mile and Livernois in Detroit. According to a source familiar with the campaign, Rogers intends to be active in Detroit both for the rest of the election cycle and afterward if elected.
Rogers has used Detroit as the backdrop to discuss his literacy platform and to promote house-building on the city’s vacant lots with tax exemptions.
Hill said that Rogers’ office is located in her old neighborhood. She also said she heard the leaked audio of Rogers suggesting that retired and current police officers be recruited as poll watchers in the city.
“To me, he has no community credibility whatsoever. Yeah, that’s nice and showy, but the policies that he continues to support are very firmly anti-Black. They’re anti-Detroit, and they would undermine this city,” she said. “I don’t care about his office on 7 Mile and Livernois. I care about what he’s going to actually do when it comes to policy and when it comes to how he envisions Detroit’s future, and so far, from what I’ve seen, I’m not impressed. I think I would say I’m offended.”
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