Posted on 12/05/2011 4:55:40 AM PST by Kaslin
Last year a one year cut in the payroll taxes that working Americans pay to finance Social Security was enacted in the name of so-called economic “stimulus.”
But, like the rest of the economic stimuli that have come from Washington over the last three years, the only thing that has been stimulated is the growing hole of national debt into which we sink deeper and deeper.
But now, not without surprise, our president and his Democrat colleagues want to continue, and possibly expand, this payroll tax holiday despite its obvious failure.
But wait a second. Failure is a matter of definition.
If the point was helping get our economy back on the road to growth and prosperity, the payroll tax holiday has been a failure.
But if the point of the payroll tax holiday is not to reduce government interference in our lives but to keep it, grow it, and strengthen the decided movement of the last three years to turn our nation into a welfare state plantation, it’s a great idea.
And that is really what is going on here and why President Obama and his Democrat colleagues on Capitol Hill love the idea.
Unlike our income taxes that government takes for general revenue and unspecified spending, the payroll tax is earmarked and specified. It pays for Social Security.
A cut in income taxes, even if not accompanied with an equivalent cut in government spending, puts the pressure for such cuts in place and carries with it the prospect of reduction of government interference in our lives.
But there is no such possibility with the payroll tax. When the tax was reduced “temporarily” last year from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent, were working Americans asked to agree to an equivalent cut in their Social Security benefits that that payroll tax pays for?
Of course not.
What politician in his or her right mind would suggest to working Americans that they intend to cut Social Security benefits?
But cutting the payroll tax is a dream idea for anyone whose project is turning our nation into a welfare state.
This is because, unlike the income tax, which almost half Americans don’t pay, practically every working man and woman pays the payroll tax.
And, what the payroll tax pays for, Social Security, is impossible to cut.
So, if the payroll tax is cut, you have to find another way to pay for those Social Security retirement benefits.
So how about rich people?
Democrats would like for super high income earners, the top one percent, who already pay 40 percent of America’s income taxes, to also start paying for everyone’s Social Security benefits.
Why not also force high income earners to put their addresses up on the internet and we can all send them our grocery bills, our car payments, and our kid’s tuition bills? Let’s get the rich to pay for all our bills, including our retirement.
Unfortunately, some Republicans are allowing themselves to be suckered into this political blackmail.
Cutting payroll taxes earmarked for a Social Security system that is already bankrupt is no way to run a country and no way for people that are allegedly free and responsible citizens to live.
And using a payroll tax holiday as a back door plan to turn Social Security into a middle class welfare program does not bode well for our nation’s future.
If the point is to fix Social Security, let working Americans keep their payroll tax and use it to fund their own private retirement account – an idea that three of four Americans under fifty favor.
If the point is to restore our economy, let’s cut the trillion dollars in new spending we’ve larded into the government over the last three years and start focusing on rewarding rather than punishing individual freedom and success.
Star Parker, nail, head, ‘nuff said.
Any money an elected representative makes outside of the salary we pay them gets confiscated. It gets rid of insider trading and fraud down to the local level.
That should bring in a few billion between every elected official in this country.
I don't expect to see a penny of Social Security, so I'll take any opportunity to pay less into this crap system. I reckon I agreed to an equivalent cut. Let's see, what's 33% of nuthin'?
And do what with those already getting or about to get Social Security?
If the point is to restore our economy, let’s cut the trillion dollars in new spending we’ve larded into the government over the last three years and start focusing on rewarding rather than punishing individual freedom and success.
I'm not disagreeing. So, Star, where would you cut the trillion from?
Though SS is earmarked, it’s borrowed by the Government and spent to the penny. So in my mind, the temporary tax cut is good thing because in a ways it helps reduce spending because it simply isn’t there to borrow.
I like the idea of 0 corporate tax (except payroll), Throw away the existing sections and loop holes on corporate tax, then increment it 1% a year for 20 years.
-——it simply isn’t there to borrow.——
However, that is irrelevant if the cash account can be infinitely expanded by simply printing more money
The cash is there to spend and will be spent regardless of the fact the source account is debt not revenue
Exactly my point for a year.
Democrats have decided to have new national debt pay for SS benefits rather than the FICA tax (until the election) and then continue to beat the drums of ‘tax the rich’ to fix the deficit.
Also the phony Obama plan raises taxes for 10 years to pay for this one year FICA tax cut.
“There will no more money for working people to give to save Social Security, therefore cuts to benefits will be the only solution.”
The math makes this certain. The question is will the benefits be cut enough, and soon enough to keep them from being cut off for everybody.
Socialism, no matter what its form, and no matter where in the world is failing. The simple calculus that someone has to make the money that is given to someone else eludes large numbers of people, including many on this site.
Social Security is socialism, let it burn with the rest of our corrupt gummit programs. The Repubs should say to eliminate the SS and Medicare payments to stimulate the economy and really put the Dems on defense.
Pray for America
I've been trying to explain this is the inevitable outcome of reducing the payroll tax on this forum over the past few weeks. But, too many people can't see beyond the end of their nose. As long as THEY don't have to pay the payroll tax, they don't care.
If you think cutting the payroll tax and sticking the bill with people who already pay most of the income tax, then you've joined the Occupy Wall Street protest, at least in principle.
Social Security was sold to the public as an insurance program, where the people who needed extra funds in their old age would have a "safety net." However the actuarial tables of it when it was introduced, combined with practically no "death benefit" for the contributors' survivors, ensured a nice new flow of $$$ into the government coffers. However, as life expectancy grew, people began to take out more than they had contributed. Combined with the way the government decided to raid the "piggy bank" it's nothing more than a ponzi scheme. Bernie Madoff is in prison for the rest of his life for doing what the government continues to do, just on a much larger scale than Madoff. And there is a difference... Madoff's victims where were screwed out of their money "invested" voluntarily. Social Security "victims" are forced by law to invest in the government ponzi scheme.
Mark
And something else people are forgetting is that for some time now, Social Security has been running in the red, meaning that at least some of the current payout is coming from the general fund. So not only are workers paying for social security benefits from their "contributions," but people who do pay federal taxes are paying for them as well.
Mark
Create the "crisis" by lowering These Taxes resulting in even the Republicans getting on board to raise taxes on the wealthy. But, even that's not going to be enough to lessen the collapse and cause "real change"
Obama knows what he's doing.
excellent article by Star Parker
This is all part of the process of shifting taxes to the “rich.” Keep ramping up spending and cutting lower and middle class taxes until only the rich pay taxes. Then the Dems have a voter base for more taxes and more spending. This is why I say a middle class or lower class tax hike might not be such a bad thing. It makes everyone pay something again.
That's part of it. But, the actuarial balance of Social Security was also compromised by other changes that were subsequently made:
These changes caused at least two effects beyond the actuarial problems: it expanded the number of people that received benefits, thus making it more popular. But, the people already receiving Social Security (or that were going to be receiving it) resented it -- and anytime there was even a hint of reducing benefits, they pointed to the people receiving benefits that they didn't "pay for".
Well, the article wasn’t about printing more money.
I'm not getting a penny of SS. Kill the scam now. I was listening to Bachmann this morning go on about why it was so important to not tax job creators but that we had to pay for SS through more payroll taxes. So the answer is to tax those who are middle class workers and give the benefits to the "poor."
So why does it make economic sense for me to pay an extra $1100 in payroll taxes to keep us out of debt, but it doesn't make sense to cut benefits (which the Dems oppose) or remove some of the payroll caps (which the Repubs oppose)?
In the end, as usual, the Average Joe suffers while the Republocrats keep us busy picking teams. A pox on both their houses.
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