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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (12061)	4/3/2004 5:38:45 PM
From: CalculatedRisk	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81568

Bob, I am with you on this one ... we need an honest debate and politically we can't have one. What a mess. SS is fine as long as you think of SS taxes as being for SS. But as you pointed out, that is not true in practice. Even during the so called surplus years of Clinton, SS was being used to create the "surplus". The closest we came to an actual surplus was fiscal '00 when the National Debt only increased $18 Billion. So both parties are to blame. Since SS taxes go to general fund spending, the '83 SS tax increase has served two purposes: 1) keep SS healthy for now, 2) shift the tax burden to lower income Americans. It has accomplished both of those goals. I personally think SS should just be an elderly welfare program. But this has problems too. There are plenty of retired people with small incomes, but huge net worth. They don't need a welfare check! But I'm not sure how to do a "wealth test". Probably the most politically feasible solution is to increase the tax on SS benefit. I would suggest a means test based on all income (retirement plans, tax free dividends, etc). If its a welfare plan, why does a person taking home $60K in tax free dividends need welfare? Those are the kinds of questions we need to ask. I would guess that we could cut the benefits payout to about 1/3 of the current payout with this plan. Of course, once you announce SS tax is just another income tax, that would bring up the other issue that is being ignored. Should the working poor (i.e. WalMart employees) pay the current high level of taxes? That is another issue that can't be debated. A shame. Best to you.