Social Security Advocates Worried by Payroll Tax Cuts
President Obama’s plans to cut payroll taxes have many Social Security advocates worried. They say it could jeopardize the retirement program’s finances.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s plan to cut payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers, but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the retirement program’s finances.
The plan is part of a package of tax cuts and extended unemployment benefits that Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would cut workers’ share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages would get a $1,000 tax cut; those making $100,000 would get a $2,000 tax cut.
The government would borrow about $112 billion to make Social Security whole. Advocates and some lawmakers worry that relying on borrowed money to fund Social Security could eventually force it to compete with other federal programs for scarce dollars, leading to cuts.
Social Security taxes “ought to be held sacrosanct,” said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on… continue reading
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Americans Want Rich to Pay to Fix Deficit
Many Americans are upset over the deficit, and feel that the rich should pay to fix the deficit. Meanwhile, people want Congress to keep its hands off of Social Security benefits and Medicare.
According to the Dec. 4-7 poll, taken days after Obama’s commission sounded an alarm over the nation’s “unsustainable fiscal path,” the public still believes it’s more important to “minimize sacrifice” than to take “bold and fast” action to pare the $13.7 trillion national debt.
“The reality is deficit-cutting hurts, and the American public is in no mood for further hurt than the slow economy and high unemployment is delivering,” said J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., a Des Moines, Iowa firm that conducted the nationwide survey.
The one place Americans are willing to see sacrifice is in the wallets of the wealthy.
While they say they strongly support balancing the budget over the next 20 years, when offered a list of more than a dozen possible spending cuts or tax increases, majorities opposed all of them except… continue reading
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