| Social Security - 1 Bush says he doesn't want to push the Social Security problem into the future. But his solution is to borrow massive amounts of money, which is exactly that…pushing the problem into the future. |
| Social Security is not currently in crisis. It is forecasted to be solvent until 2042 (or 2052, depending on the forecaster.) However, it is true that it is in our best interest to begin to address the future problems sooner rather than later. There are three elements that can be adjusted to bring Social Security into balance. They are: Benefit Cuts Borrowing Tax Increases Agreeing to cut our future benefits in order to attain tax savings now assumes that we need to spend more and save less. That flies in the face of any responsible financial advice. Bush's privatization scheme involves MASSIVE amounts of borrowing over a period of decades. Increasing our taxes now for sustained benefits during our retirement is the responsible and MORAL approach to the problem. Currently, if you earn less than $90,000 per year, you pay a LARGER percentage of your income in FICA taxes than someone who makes over $90,000 per year. The best way to extend social security solvency into the future is to eliminate the $90,000 per year cap on FICA taxes. (That essentially "flattens" the FICA tax. You don't hear the flat-taxers screaming for this though, do you?) Of the three factors at our disposal, tax increases should be the FIRST thing that we consider, not the LAST. Bush says that "everything is on the table," but then he turns right around and says that he won't consider tax increases. That's a direct contradiction. He has eliminated one third of the three factors…and the best option. [F]ederal spending as a share of G.D.P. isn't high by historical standards -- in fact, it's slightly below its average over the past 20 years. But federal revenue as a share of G.D.P. has plunged to levels not seen since the 1950's. Almost all of this plunge came from a sharp decline in receipts from the personal income tax and the corporate profits tax. These are the taxes that fall primarily on people with high incomes -- and in 2003 and 2004, their combined take as a share of G.D.P. was at its lowest level since 1942. On the other hand, the payroll tax, which is the main federal tax paid by middle-class and working-class Americans, remains at near-record levels. You might think, given these facts, that a plan to reduce the deficit would include major efforts to increase revenue, starting with a rollback of recent huge tax cuts for the wealthy. In fact, the budget contains new upper-income tax breaks. Source: "Spearing The Beast" by Paul Krugman - New York Times - 2/8/05 |
|
Read what others have said about this statement here.
Use the section at the bottom of the screen to submit your own comment. | ||
| Comments | Contributor | Date Submitted |
| Bush's main goal for his 2nd term would appear to be destroying the U.S. | Linda Denton |
2/4/2005 |
Submit your comment below | ||