Payroll tax cuts rob the poor to feed the rich (Michael Hiltzik, LA Times)

[Faygo Kid]

Washington's long-term nostrums all involve preserving the status quo for the Wall Street class. Cutting Social Security and Medicare? That's on the table. Rolling back tax benefits for the wealthy? That's not.

The silver lining in economic crises, if there is one, is that they can lead us to reexamine the flaws in the capitalist system and chisel out the rot.

But what explains the headlong rush in Washington to use the current crisis to undermine the foundations of economic security even further?

Specifically, I'm talking about a new proposal to rob from Social Security to fund a continuing tax break for people who don't need Social Security — the wealthy.

Make no mistake: This is a bipartisan effort. It started back in December, when President Obama capitulated to the GOP on a budget deal by cutting the payroll tax, which funds Social Security. Advocates for the program pointed out then the shortcomings of this approach: It was targeted inefficiently and unfairly, skewing to the upper middle class and hurting lower-income families in comparison with the Making Work Pay tax credit it replaced. . . .

https://access.aarp.org/business/,DanaInfo=.awxyCpfzpun2Ko10+la-fi-hiltzik-20110619,0,1491029.column

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Overseas]

2. Drove me nuts too. Cut SSI funding source then say Golly, It's running out of money!

When does all the poisonous compromising end?

When do Democrats try to prove they have some guts to protect us against crazed Republican cruelty?

[Faygo Kid]

3. They are all bought and paid for. Frightening.

Very few persons of integrity in politics now. It's all about the money. You can include the Supreme Court in that, too.

The selection of George W. Bush killed this nation.

[Overseas]

5. That's why so many of us voted for dramatic change in 2008.

Wish the entrenched corporate power hadn't smashed back our mandate so decisively.

[Doctor_J]

7. We could have done more

but it would have meant actually spilling some blood. we just aren't tough enough any more.

[plumbob]

4. Sickens me. I really am close to despair over the future of this

country. I'm old enough at 60+ not to have much longer to worry, but I have children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that I fear for.

[Doctor_J]

6. And yet those being robbed continue to beg for more

What's more, I am no longer sure that the president "capitulated". He now plays golf with public enemy #1 - his pals are the robbers, not the robbees.