contact Dean campaign regarding payroll tax

[Eric J in MN]

Today on "This Week with George Stephanapolous," Howard Dean said he will definitely lower the payroll tax.

Unfortunately, he implied he would wait until after we have a balanced budget. The budget may not be balanced for several years.

Income over $87,000 is exempt from payroll taxes.

Please ask Dean to propose raising the cap at the same time he lowers the rate, so that the plan can be implemented promptly.

Raising the cap while lowering the rate would mean the rich pay more and the middle-class pays less.

Making the plan revenue-neutral would also address the charge that he's endangering social security.

Please contact the Dean campaign at:
http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/cg/index.html?type=page&pagename=resources_contact

[Padraig18]

1. Are you a Dean supporter?

I'm frankly puzzled by the intense focus in your posts on Gov. Dean as regards this issue. :shrug:

[Eric J in MN]

3. We all should be concerned about Dean's campaign because

We all should be concerned about Dean's campaign because he's the frontrunner.

I haven't supported Dean yet.

Dennis Kucinich is my favorite.

However, if Howard Dean is clearly going to be the nominee after the March 9 primaries, I will give the Dean campaign the maximum of $2,000.

[Padraig18]

5. OK, fair enough answer.

I was just sincerely puzzled. :)

[bearfartinthewoods]

8. maybe because dean's the only one foolish enough to bring this up?

if he wasn't going to try, and i repeat TRY to make the payroll tax more progressive by reducing the rate on the working poor instead of pandering to the middleclass like clark has, why in the hell did he hint that he would last week?

[dogman]

2. Doesn't help unemployed either.

Only thing worse than Income Tax is no income to tax.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Eloriel]

6. Oh, so you're for privatizing Social Security?

Because in the event of a drop in payroll taxes, there's nothing at all to stop people from doing just that quite on their own. No reason to gum up the works by introducing this wrinkle. This is the talk of those who favor, and are attempting to incrementally start, privatizing Social Security through exactly this type of gimmick.

Don't fall for it, don't bring it here to DU.

Eloriel

[Eric J in MN]

7. the cap has been raised before and will be raised again

Why exempt all income above $87,000 as opposed to $500,000, for example?

I don't see asking Howard Dean to make revenue-neutral his proposal to lower the payroll-tax rate by also raising the cap, to be so radical.

[HFishbine]

9. Does Gephardt Support Privatizing Social Security?

Just curious?

[Larkspur]

10. I oppose cutting the payroll tax, but support removing the salary cap

Social Security is social insurance and we should all be willing to pay for it. Decreasing the payroll tax would mean lowering SS benefits, even if the salary cap is removed.

I do favor restructuring the income tax to be fairer. Corporations should pay their fair share of taxes so that the middle and working classes can have more take home pay and our social infrastructure is kept well funded.

[Eric J in MN]

11. a small lowering of the payroll tax rate, acompanied by

A small lowering of the payroll tax rate, acompanied by removing the salary cap, would mean more money for Social Security.

[democratreformed]

12. "Implied" is the key word

He only wants it to appear that he is going to do that, IMO.

[Eric J in MN]

13. During the Sunday night debate in Iowa, he made it seem definite that

During the Sunday night debate in Iowa, he made it seem definite that he will offer some form of tax-relief for the middle-class.

Unfortunately, Dean said it wouldn't be for until after the budget is balanced.

By raising the payroll tax salary cap, he could propose implementing it soon instead.

[Eric J in MN]

14. kick

kick

[maddezmom]

15. have you heard anything back yet?

[Eric J in MN]

16. They receive too many emails to respond, but Dean is supposed to

They receive too many emails to respond, but Dean is supposed to announce his tax-cut plan in February.

I hope it's a plan which raises taxes on the rich and lowers them on the middle-class so that it is revenue-neutral and can be implemented right away.

If Dean says he has a tax-cut plan, but he doesn't want it to take effect until the 6th year of his administration, that won't go over well in the general election.

[cryofan]

17. dean has already shown his anti-egalitarian tendencies in Vermont

Raising taxes on upper income yuppies and Dean's rich cohort, while lowering taxes on the proles is hardly Dean's line of politics.

You want to know what Dean will really do when he gets in office?
Try read Dean's own words from when he was governor of Vermont, before he started running for president; you see he was a little bit more frank back in those days:


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Most of the Democrats in the legislature rebelled against Dean over the budget cuts, and he ended up depending on Republican votes to pass most of his proposals. At the time, a local Vermont newspaper wrote, "The biggest items on Dean’s agenda for next year are likely to provoke more opposition from the Democrats than the Republicans. Nevertheless, Dean said he feels no particular pressure to deliver the goods to his party or to promote the Democratic agenda."15

In the mid-1990s, Dean even aligned himself with the likes of Republican Newt Gingrich on his stance on cutting Medicare. He opined at the time, "The way to balance the budget is for Congress to cut Social Security, move the retirement age to 70, cut defense, Medicare and veterans pensions, while the states cut everything else."16
....
The Rutland Herald described how one protestor, Henrietta Jordan of the Vermont Center for Independent Living, "said it would be much fairer to raise taxes on people with expensive homes and cars, children in private school and a housekeeper at home than to cut programs that helped the 66,000 Vermonters living with disabilities."17 Dean responded callously, brushing off the pleas of Vermont’s most vulnerable by saying, "This seems like sort of the last gasp of the left here."18"
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


The rest of this article is here:
http://www.isreview.org/issues/32/dean.shtml