I am a free market guy too. However did you ever consider how devastating private accounts managed by idiots like us would have done to retirement in the US?
Nobody ever proposed "private accounts managed by idiots like us", and I would not support that either. Today, in an IRA, you can trade stocks and options as though it were a regular account. I would never suggest anything like that for the private portion of SS. But Bush's plan to allow a small portion, e.g., less than 10%, of one's contributions to set aside in an account with the taxpayer's name on it made a lot of sense.
So when obama comes along and proboses tax credits that will act as sort of a negative income tax for lower earners to offset the 16% combined fica and medicare taxes, why cant intelligent folks of all political persuasions see the veracity of such a program rather than falling back to private accounts?
We already have that. It is called the EITC, and it is one of the absolute worst provisions of the Internal Revenue Code today. Not only is it a transfer of wealth to the minimally employed, it is undoubtedly one of the most, if not THE most, abused provisions in all of tax law.
As a taxpayer, I find it troubling that this kind of welfare is entrenched into the tax law. When EITC started out, it was very limited and the requirements were such that relatively few people qualified. Today, it has replaced the welfare system to some extent, and Obama will expand this giveaway.
The man is an extremist. If you haven't figured that out yet, just consider that he is going to be teaching kindergartners about STDs and preventing pregnancy. Do you support that? |
