To: TimF who wrote (327079 ) 2/22/2007 7:59:02 PM From: Road Walker Read Replies (1) | Respond to re: Income taxes will pay for future SS shortfalls. When SS starts to spend more than the SS tax brings in the difference will be paid for from the income tax ("paying back" the loans from the "trust fund"). But even if it was 100% dedicated, it would still be federal tax income, and federal spending. You could create any sort of dedicated taxes tied to whatever spending area you want and other then creating some extra bureaucracy, maybe some extra political difficulty in cutting or eliminating some program, and probably some greater inflexibility in the budget, the net effect is not significant. Social security taxes, are separate from the spending, and they have no intrinsic tie. Also a single act of congress could make defense something that is in "surplus" in the same way that you call social security something that is in surplus. Just designate a portion of the income tax to defense, or reduce the income tax while instituting a new defense tax. All the sudden (depending on the tax rates) you could say "defense is in surplus" but it would be a useless statement. There is nothing ideological about this, I'm just pointing out simple facts. I could take these facts and later use them as part of some ideological or political argument, but they are not themselves artifacts of ideology.
