Changing Direction On Social Security Reform By Ed Henry -- Price of Liberty
11/21/08
Changing Direction On Social Security Reform
By Ed Henry

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April 25, 2005

Is Bush beginning to weaken on his idea for personal or ownership accounts for younger workers? Perhaps.

His echo chamber speeches in sixty cities are not getting the media attention needed in order to be successful. Playfully delivering the same canned speech over and over before a selected audience of supporters may have finally driven him to waving one of the Parkersburg Papers in the air and calling the “holdings” of the Social Security trust funds worthless. This last minute truthfulness may have been his final shot.

The Washington Post reports that Bush may now be thinking of turning the battle over to “a panel” of bipartisan politicians to come up with better solutions. It may even carry the issue into next year’s mid-term elections.

This is not a good sign.

It’s not good because it seriously diminishes the chance that the full scam the government has been pulling for ages will come completely out in the open. A scam that not only involves $1.7 trillion in current Social Security “holdings,” but a full $3.2 trillion in Enron style accounting within the fraudulent Intragovernmental Holdings portion of the national debt.

The democrats will have won their fight to hold on to the lucrative surpluses that have always poured into federal coffers from payroll taxes and it will give the pirates the opportunity to come up with schemes to steal even more of this “off budget” revenue supplied by America’s workers. The scam will continue unabated and even increase.

In the event that we do get into long and convoluted arguments about actuarial data and things like changing the age of retirement, cutting benefits, or raising the “cap” on salaries taxed, factors that each will increase the booty for politicians to spend elsewhere, there is one thing the general public needs to understand deeply and in detail.

That one fact is that the Social Security Administration has always been able to adjust its tax rate fairly and in terms of changing conditions no matter what those conditions might have been. It deals with actuarial realities, not greed and political fantasy.

Secondly, these adjustments can be made almost the day before any sort of disaster strikes. Payroll tax changes are immediate and as quick as the next paycheck. They come out of everyone’s next weekly, biweekly, or monthly paychecks. There is hardly a time lag between raising taxes and the new money rolling in.

In other words, there is no need to adjust these tax factors years ahead of time or years before they are needed. That is, there is no need other than to increase the loot for the pirates.

In its 68 years of taxing workers, payroll taxes have been adjusted no less than 49 times. Take this table and paste it by your television. Every line was an adjustment.

PAYROLL TAXES
Taken from: A Guide to Social Security & Medicare
28th edition, William M. Mercer, Inc.
and the Social Security Administration for years beyond 2000

Years
Employer &
Employee Tax Rate
(percent)
Self-Employed
Tax Rate
(percent)
Maximum Earnings
Taxed Annually
(cap)
1937-49
1.00
=
$3,000
1950
1.50
=
3,000
1951-53
1.50
2.25
3,600
1954
2.00
3.00
3,600
1955-56
2.00
3.00
4,200
1957-58
2.25
3.375
4,200
1959
2.50
3.75
4,800
1960-61
3.00
4.50
4,800
1962
3.125
4.70
4,800
1963-65
3.625
5.40
4,800
1966
4.20
6.15
6,600
1967
4.40
6.40
6,600
1968
4.40
6.40
7,800
1969-70
4.80
6.90
7,800
1971
5.20
7.50
7,800
1972
5.20
7.50
9,000
1973
5.85
8.00
10,000
1974
5.85
7.90
13,200
1975
5.85
7.90
14,100
1976
5.85
7.90
15,300
1977
5.85
7.90
16,500
1978
6.05
8.10
17,700
1979
6.13
8.10
22,900
1980
6.13
8.10
25,000
1981
6.65
9.30
29,700
1982
6.70
9.35
32,400
1983
6.70
9.35
35,700
1984
6.70
11.30
37,800
1985
7.05
11.80
39,600
1986
7.15
12.30
42,000
1987
7.15
12.30
43,800
1988
7.51
13.02
45,000
1989
7.51
13.02
48,000
1990
7.65
15.30
51,300
1991
7.65
15.30
53,400
1992
7.65
15.30
55,500
1993
7.65
15.30
57,600
1994
7.65
15.30
60,600
1995
7.65
15.30
61,200
1996
7.65
15.30
62,700
1997
7.65
15.30
65,400
1998
7.65
15.30
68,400
1999
7.65
15.30
72,600
2000
7.65
15.30
76,200
2001
7.65
15.30
80,400
2002
7.65
15.30
84,900
2003
7.65
15.30
87,000
2004
7.65
15.30
87,900
2005
7.65
15.30
90,000

Please note that George W. Bush, the man who claims he "will not raise payroll taxes," has done exactly that every year he's been in office.

Democrats who have been stonewalling the Bush plan for private accounts now claim that they are willing to negotiate other plans to develop solutions to Social Security's long term problems. Watch out.

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Archives

Boomer Myth - The Great Fear Story For Social Security

First Things First - STOP Social Security's Bleeding

IOUs Really You Owe You

Boomers - Where Are They?

Secrets Neither Political Cult Will Tell You

Rumors Without Foundation

Trust Diablo And Send Money-

Bush Put The Fox Back In The Chicken Coop

Unfunded Liabilities - What They Are

Job Market Reflected In Payroll Taxes

$3.2 Billion A Day - $2.25 Million A Minute

Bushit - Pile It On

Go George Go - Keep Talking About Social Security

Pipedreams Of Social Security Reform

Open Letter To President Bush & Congress

AFL-CIO Clash Of The Titans-

Parkersburg Papers At The Bureau Of Public Debt

The Job Market Reflected In March Payroll Taxes

Complete Archives for Ed Henry

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