More bad news on the Social Security front:
The Trump administration is considering a proposal to remove Social Security’s dedicated funding stream by eliminating the payroll tax that funds it, the Associated Press reports.
That would generate a considerable and highly visible tax cut for workers - 6.2 percent of their wages, putting an extra $3,720 a year into the paychecks of someone who makes $60,000 a year. And it would save the same amount for their employers.
But Social Security advocates worry that it would undermine the program’s finances by making it reliant on general revenues. Nancy Altman, who co-directs the Social Security Works advocacy group, called it a potential stealth attack.
“We were always able to say Social Security doesn’t add a penny to the deficit, and if all of a sudden there’s general revenue flowing to it, then it does contribute to the deficit,” she said. “It undermines the idea that it’s an earned benefit.”
You can read the rest @
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/11/trump-trial-balloon-to-eliminate-social-security-tax-undermines-key-defense-of-the-program/
This would DESTROY the program upon which millions of Americans depend. And it very likely would occur at the same time many private pension funds collapse.
Trump does NOT advocate "America First" - he intends to further enrich the rich while starving the poor.
What should be done is eliminating the cap on the payroll tax to ensure the SS program is adequately funded.
And by the way, the US judicial system has ALREADY ruled that SS is NOT an earned benefit - it's just another tax.
Globalization, deregulation, and de-industrialization destroyed the US economy and our tax base. The delusional acts Trump is engaged in will not fix either one.
Woe is us.
By the way, more than half of us make $60K or LESS per year, so the numbers mentioned above confirm Trump's plan would only benefit the rich:
ReplyDeletehttps://thinkprogress.org/most-american-families-make-60-000-or-less-a-year-e17de08d36a2