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February 05, 2005

Stop trying to lower the floor and raise the ceiling, already!

The New York Times > Washington > Bush Outlines Ways Cuts Could Close Funding Gap

"Some Republicans have even gone so far as to suggest the one approach Mr. Bush did not mention in his speech, raising the ceiling on income subject to payroll taxes, which is now about $90,000 a year. The idea appeals to some politicians because only about 6 percent of Americans earn more than $90,000 a year. Imposing Social Security taxes on incomes of up to $200,000 would come close to eliminating the entire deficit."


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This is ridiculous. Why are we talking about gutting social security when the answer is obviously to raise the ceiling? Oh, yeah, because the rich don't want to pay their fair share of supporting the general welfare, even though they are more than happy to keep hiring people at income levels too low to save any damn money on. Don't you think if people *had* the money to invest for their retirement, they would? Oh, but of course not - that would require people to think ahead, wouldn't it, now? Like your proposed solution doesn't? Oh no, the poor folk certainly can't be trusted to be as smart as we rich folk and plan for their future...

geez, I'm tired of this crap.

Hey, rich folk (and yeah, just for the record, I'm one of you)- it's either one way or the other - pay people enough that they can afford to save something, and consider them intelligent enough to save something by paying a decent interest rate and educating people about economics, or else admit already that you just want to run everyone's life, pay shit for wages, and be willing to pay for people to be able to retire. Sorry, the "stern father" approach demands one response or the other, not both. And no CEO deserves to be paid 3,000 times what an entry level employee is making.

Good grief, this country is insane.

Posted by donna at February 5, 2005 05:33 PM

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