1/23/2011
By Doug Cunningham
AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka says as the President prepares to address the nation the national conversation over budget cuts and austerity coming from politicians and the corporate media sounds to him like it’s straight out of Alice In Wonderland - with no hint of the reality facing American workers.
Trumka: “The same leaders who fought so valiantly to cut taxes for the wealthy turn right around and lecture us about the imminent bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare.
So let me get this straight: We need to slash retirement and health benefits for the elderly because we are on the brink of fiscal crisis.
But we can afford to squander hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the super-rich. Only at the Mad Hatter's tea party does this make sense. When we’re reduced to competing to cut spending instead of deciding how to compete in the world economy and secure our future, then we are having the wrong conversation.”
Trumka is correct. the existing crisis was not brought on by Social Security mismanagement or payroll tax shortfalls. In fact, the government borrows the excess payments in Social Security to fund general revenue items like defense. Social Security and Medicare are funded by the FICA payroll tax, not Income Tax.
The national debt and deficit are caused by cost overruns in government revenues that are primarily raised by income tax, corporate tax and tariffs and fees.
Social Security and Medicare should be of the table in deficit reduction because neither program has any great effect on the deficit. Social Security is a regressive tax because it has more impact on the middle class and the poor than the affluent.
Many of the problems with Social Security remaining solvent relate to the $102,500 cap that lets top earning Americans off of the hook for the tax.
In addition, 50 per cent of US income is now hauled in by the top 10 per cent of Americans, a phenomena that started with Reagannomics. This has occurred because middle class income has been flat for at least two decades.
The American work force has also shrunk which has affected Social Security and Medicare revenue.
It will not be hard to fix Social Security revenue problems by making the Social Security part of the FICA payroll tax more progressive. Social Security and Medicare are side shows in the deficit and and national debt debate.
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA
Netcraft rank: 6497 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
By Doug Cunningham
Trumka: “The same leaders who fought so valiantly to cut taxes for the wealthy turn right around and lecture us about the imminent bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare.
So let me get this straight: We need to slash retirement and health benefits for the elderly because we are on the brink of fiscal crisis.
But we can afford to squander hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the super-rich. Only at the Mad Hatter's tea party does this make sense. When we’re reduced to competing to cut spending instead of deciding how to compete in the world economy and secure our future, then we are having the wrong conversation.”
Trumka is correct. the existing crisis was not brought on by Social Security mismanagement or payroll tax shortfalls. In fact, the government borrows the excess payments in Social Security to fund general revenue items like defense. Social Security and Medicare are funded by the FICA payroll tax, not Income Tax.
The national debt and deficit are caused by cost overruns in government revenues that are primarily raised by income tax, corporate tax and tariffs and fees.
Social Security and Medicare should be of the table in deficit reduction because neither program has any great effect on the deficit. Social Security is a regressive tax because it has more impact on the middle class and the poor than the affluent.
Many of the problems with Social Security remaining solvent relate to the $102,500 cap that lets top earning Americans off of the hook for the tax.
In addition, 50 per cent of US income is now hauled in by the top 10 per cent of Americans, a phenomena that started with Reagannomics. This has occurred because middle class income has been flat for at least two decades.
The American work force has also shrunk which has affected Social Security and Medicare revenue.
It will not be hard to fix Social Security revenue problems by making the Social Security part of the FICA payroll tax more progressive. Social Security and Medicare are side shows in the deficit and and national debt debate.
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA
Netcraft rank: 6497 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment