Is this the President's Plan to Demolish Social Security?

[sad sally]

He said it again last night: "Keep in mind...In fact, I want to extend the payroll tax cut for working families."

Go back and read what was said in December 2010 before the Bush/Obama/Congress tax deal was struck. The warning was that Republicans wouldn't want this tax extended, as it would be seen an evil tax increase. So, who's the champion pushing for an extension? The President.

The President likes to tout the idea of "average" Americans making $50,000 getting $1,000 more each year. Story is that that $1,000 was completely spent by April 2011 due to higher fuel and food costs.

Who has this "holiday tax" benefited most? Want to guess? For a family making $106,800, the current maximum for the FICA tax, they got $2,136 more. For a family making a million dollars, they get $2,136, and for a family making ten million it's $2,136

By providing this cut in the payroll taxes that fund Social Security, which the President now wants to extend, this deal is leading the nation down a slippery slope that could lead to permanent benefits cuts for the middle class and even more wealth for the rich.

Obama's "payroll tax holiday" may end up sending America's seniors on a permanent unpaid for vacation. This "holiday" is a way to undermine Social Security. Tax breaks can be done in so many ways, so why did the President choose this way - the only source of Social Security's funding - to become what looks like a long-term plan?

The President is planting the seed, and you can bet congress will take the bait that the 2% "holiday tax" can't expire in an election year. Meanwhile, the government debt has increased $120 billion (which hasn't been transferred from the general fund). Add another $120+ and viola, the debt has increased to the point where it can never be repaid.

"Never before in Social Security's 75-year history has it taken any funds from the overall Treasury. It's forbidden by law from adding to the deficit. That's why it has its own trust fund, which currently holds a surplus of $2.6 trillion. That's money the Federal government has borrowed, and which it's morally (and legally) obligated to pay back so we can receive our retirement benefits."

Why hasn't the President explained why this "holiday tax," which is killing the Social Security fund, is the only way to ease the tax burden? Is this the plan to destroy Social Security?

[unkachuck]

1. "Is this the plan to destroy Social Security?"

....good question....

[Indykatie]

2. Yeah That Must Be It...Obama Wants to Demolish SS

[SoutherDem]

3. I was wondering when I heard him say that,

Isn't that the one tax which doesn't need to be cut? Isn't that the money which is keeping SS going for a few more years? Wouldn't "taking a holiday" from that tax just leave SS that much closer to running out of money?

[sad sally]

4. $117 Billion added to the deficit in 2011/12; extending another year

is estimated to add $120 Billion. Guess there are those who'd rather have the extra $83 dollars a month now and not worry about how the general fund is going to come up with $117 Billion this year and $120 Billion next year. The plan is suspect to me...

[truedelphi]

13. You are not the only one

Thinking about it.

[slipslidingaway]

5. I'm sure there will be plenty of money in the general budget to make up ...

the difference.

:sarcasm:

[Poll_Blind]

6. That bit stuck in my ear, too.

There is little he won't preemptively promise-away. Excepting, of course, the wars. Gotta have priorities!

PB

[demosincebirth]

7. Yeah, I think this is what he had in mind all along. No doubt about it. Sure.

[customerserviceguy]

8. While I opposed the current tax holiday

and I still oppose an extension of it, I'd rather see it used productively. Instead of giving it out willy-nilly, why not give it to employers who hire the long-term unemployed? One month of not having to pay employer FICA for every month that the new hire has been out of work.

[Divernan]

12. That is an excellent suggestion - especially w/employers blacklisting unemployed

Plenty of reports in the news that employers are saying unemployed need not apply.

[JDPriestly]

9. Obama is a buddy to Pete Peterson.

Just Google Pete Peterson.

[Enthusiast]

10. I am completely against these tax holidays.

It will weaken our position that social security is sound and bolster the excuse for privatization.

[bvar22]

11. The Payroll Tax "Holiday" also directly connects Social Security to the deficit.

"To prevent Social Security from losing tax revenue, Congress mandated that revenues be transferred from the general fund to the Social Security trust funds to make up for the tax reduction."

http://taxes.about.com/od/payroll/a/Reduced-Social-Security-Withholding-For-2011.htm

WHY did the Democratic Party leadership go to all the additional trouble and complexity of a Payroll Tax Holiday, funded by transferring cash from the General Fund to the Social Security Fund?
Why not do it the easy way and simply give everybody a check from the General Fund?
Bush The Lesser did it that way.

NOW, when Republicans claim that Social Security adds to the deficit,
they are telling the TRUTH.

Pretty clever, eh?



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1538388



Who will STAND and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

[sabrina 1]

15. Unbelievable. It certainly does look like someone wants to

destroy SS and now that they know we know they were lying when they tried to connect it to the deficit, it looks like they came up with a Machiavellian way to make it true.

Who needs Republicans when we have Democrats like this? And people tried to tell us his choice of people for that Commission was nothing to worry about.

Thanks for your post. It just gets worse the more we learn about all of this.

[Tx4obama]

14. NO. But the REPUBLICANS have said that they want to demolish SS, Medicare, and Medicaid. n/t