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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (219653)	2/18/2005 1:10:22 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573718

GOP howls over W tax idea BY RICHARD SISK DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - President Bush's flirtation with a tax increase to pay for his Social Security reform plan sent shock waves yesterday through the ferociously anti-tax GOP base. Hard-liners said raising the cap on which Social Security payroll taxes are paid from the current $90,000 would amount to a tax increase - no matter how the White House tries to define it as something else. "This is a massive tax increase and for the self-employed, it's an incredibly massive tax increase," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. "Unless it's off the table quickly, there is some danger for him [Bush] with the base." Bush opened the door to raising the cap Wednesday but ruled out hiking the 12.4% Social Security tax rate on pay, which is split evenly between workers and employers. "The one thing I'm not open-minded about is raising the payroll tax rate," Bush said, "and all the other issues go on the table." When asked yesterday why raising the cap should not be seen as a retreat from his campaign pledges not to raise taxes, Bush did not respond directly. He said his proposals were simply a message to Congress to "bring your ideas forward" on Social Security. But members of his own party are already dissing talk of increasing the cap. "I personally see this as one of the least attractive options," said Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). House and Senate Democrats have vowed to block Bush's plan to let younger workers invest some of their payroll taxes. New York Sen. Charles Schumer and his Dem colleagues have even unveiled a "Bush Privatization Plan" calculator on their Web sites that they said shows the amount workers would lose under the Bush plan based on their ages and earnings. nydailynews.com