Bush aide vows continued campaign on pension system changes

[MaineDem]

BANGOR, Maine — President Bush´s top aide Andrew Card said the administration will continue its effort to promote Social Security reforms, which has touched 26 states in five months, despite poll numbers showing weak support for the plan.

"The president is not going to chase the polls," Card told a Bangor audience Friday. "He´s going to educate America."

With Congress gearing up to debate the issue, Card said his Maine appearance was aimed at persuading U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, a pivotal member of the Senate Finance Committee, to support reform efforts.

Snowe, R-Maine, has said she would oppose any private accounts that reduce contributions to the fund. A spokesman for Snowe said Friday she is still studying a new proposal to use the payroll tax surplus for private investments.

http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D8AUP59O0-175.shtml

[Algorem]

1. Let's give them the pension they deserve:life in prison,solitary confine-

ment,hard labor.

[earthboundmisfit]

2. Shrub "educating America" ... right...

I shouldn't read things like this while I'm drinking! :spray:

[VegasWolf]

13. Image the bitter depths of stupidity that would be required in order

for one to actually be eddycated by Bush.

[whistle]

3. Boy, Bush has his marching orders to not pay back any of the....

...Social Security surpluses he has looted since he took office, some $1.5 trillion so far. He just wants to burn those federal notes he signed....:popcorn:

[rodeodance]

5. what exactly does he mean when he says "the payroll tax surplus "?

A spokesman for Snowe said Friday she is still studying a new proposal to use the payroll tax surplus for private investments.

[whistle]

16. Social Security is funded through the FICA deductions....

...which stands for Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). The employee pays 6.2% and the employer pays 6.2% which comes to 12.4% of all wages (hourly or salary no matter) up to $90,000.00 in annual payroll per employee.

If you are self-employed, like say a convenience store owner, or a salesman who is a company representative, or a flea market vendor, or a hot dog stand owner, net-work marketing folks like Amway Sales Reps, you are supposed to pay the entire 12.4% on earned income up to $90,000.00. Unfortunately, many of these types of self-employed persons, under-report their actual earned income, or find ways to shelter the money from FICA, and thus do not pay into it. If they try to build a separate retirement account, their income is disclosed and the IRS forces them to pay FICA. That's the "business crowd" who Bush has rallied around his cause, because they would much rather see SS killed for the rest of the population of working folks, so they don't have to pay into it themselves. Then you also have the big companies who want to avoid their share of the 6.2% payroll FICA, which they have come to label as payroll tax. It is not tax, it is their share of the Federal Insurance Contribution Act.

BushCo once again has skewed the language through their "new speak" strategies so get their way. Hope that helps. Here is an article that addresses your actual question.

<snip>
What's FICA Again?

Under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), 12.4 percent of your earned income up to an annual limit must be paid into Social Security, and an additional 2.9 percent must be paid into Medicare.

There are no earned income limits on Medicare taxes -- so even if your salary is well above the cap for Social Security tax, you will still owe Medicare tax on your total earned income.

If you're a wage or salaried employee, you pay only half the FICA bill (6.2 percent for Social Security + 1.45 percent for Medicare), and the tax is automatically withheld.


Your employer contributes the other half.


<link> http://money.cnn.com/pf/101/lessons/18/page3.html

[madeline_con]

4. "He´s going to educate America."

I think he's taught us quite enough, thank you!

[rodeodance]

7. the US of A does NOT need his kind of 'education"

[LiberalAndProud]

6. R-i-i-i-i-ight. and Bolton will be ambassador.

Dare I say it

NOT

[mom cat]

8. No George! The money is mine and you can't have it! You just keep

your dirty filthy hands off the money I worked so hard to get! This is just like the savings-and-loan scandal, the retirement fund raids, the stock market bubble and the emerging housing crash. Add to that the latest draconian bankruptcy laws and the Supreme Court decision that Wal-Mart can evict you! Those greedy bastards want to take everything that we've worked for away from us and we have to fight like hell!

No George, you cannot take the Social Security fund and give it to all your greedy buddies! May you rot in hell!

[lovuian]

9. Pension System changes Hmmm Afraid to say Social Security

Bush is getting squeemish now even saying Social Security!!!

now its a pension System...

the more he talks and the More Snow talks about it the more the polls go farther and farther down the tubes!!!

Any congressman who votes for changes is going to have a big X on their forehead by Aarp!!! and this polls are downright scary for Republicans!!!

[teryang]

10. Plunge Protection Team getting desperate

Needs to tap a huge new money river to hold up the banking system and currency.

Corporations have been set free of the tax system. Additionally, they view Americans as only a market. They have exported virtually all of their production off shore. When our market collapses due to record breaking indebtedness, they will merely move their center of gravity to Asia.

By allowing American corporations to uncouple themselves from the national interest, American society as a whole has placed itself in the category of its latin American neighbors.

[Jim Sagle]

11. America will end as a collective embodiment of Blanche DuBois, who

"always depended on the kindness of strangers."

http://www.bartleby.com/59/6/streetcarnam.html

[teryang]

12. God help us all then...

...do we deserve kindness?

[Jim Sagle]

14. As Bob Dole said, "That depends."

;-)

[shanti]

15. educate? * couldn't educate a chia pet!

they trot this garbage out ever few days now.