GOP senator (Rick Santorum) open to tax increase

[truthpusher]

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050228/1057044.asp

GOP senator open to tax increase
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By JOEL HAVEMANN
Los Angeles Times
2/28/2005
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WASHINGTON - Sen. Rick Santorum, the conservative from Pennsylvania who ranks third in the Senate Republican leadership, said Sunday that he was willing to discuss increasing the Social Security tax rate to help assure the program's solvency.

Santorum said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that raising the Social Security payroll tax might be the price Republicans have to pay for Democratic support for diverting some of the tax revenue to private retirement accounts, as President Bush has proposed.

The public appears to be reacting negatively to Bush's idea of private accounts. In holding out an olive branch to Democrats, Santorum's position went one step further than the president's.

complete story: http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050228/1057044.asp

[hedda_foil]

1. No thank you.

How 'bout raising the cap and forgetting about the private accounts altogether.

[napi21]

6. Raising the cap is what they were talking about in that comment.

He of course views that as a tax increase.

[Bridget Burke]

16. He's also looking at raising the tax rate

From the linked article: "The president has also said we shouldn't have any kind of (tax) rate increase," he said. "But I'm sitting down and negotiating with Democrats in the Senate, and what I've said is I can't expect them to come to the table with everything on the table unless I come to the table with everything on the table."

[nickshepDEM]

12. Raising the cap will turn SS into a Welfare program.

That wasnt the intention of the original SS program.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

17. I'm with you...

the solution is simple: raise the damn cap! Why is it that the teacher making, say, $40,000/yr pays tax on 100% of his/her income, but Smirk, making $400,000/yr pays tax on only 22% of his income? Are the unwashed masses so brainwashed by Faux News that they think (I'm being generous...) that the "wealthy" s/be immune from paying their fair share?

On edit: What's the current senate salary - $158,000? That means Senator Frothy Mixture pays tax on only 56% of his income. It's time to start collecting on that other 44%.

[tanyev]

2. Did Santorum have this epiphany

while on his ill-fated Social Security propaganda tour?

[tom_paine]

14. No Epiphany, Totalitarian Aristocrats LOVE taxing poor people

not to mention the Middle Class of "townspeople and Jews" (as they used to say back when Santorum's Politics ruled the world 1200-1700).

This is perfectly consistent with the Bushevik need to enrich the rich and impoveriosh everyone else (with the difference going into their pockets).

[Rainscents]

3. I hope GOP looses bunch of seats in '06.

[Renew Deal]

4. Ha, he was evasive about it.

But the headline ought to piss him off.

[napi21]

5. Yea, I heard him say that! Tells me he's running in 2008!!!

Rick ALWAYS backs Shrubs plans...good or bad. My mouth dropped when I heard him say that. Rumors have been flying that he's going to do a Pres run in 2008, and this is proof of that!

[sjgman9]

8. I think a Presidential run in 2008 wont happen if Casey...

defeats him. Lets clear the deck for Bob Casey Jr to demolish Santorum, that wingnut embarrasment of a Senator and Catholicism.

[Divernan]

19. Santorum as Pres?!?! Means Opus Dei in the Oval Office

Santorum would do even more damage than Bush. And he could appoint a cabinet full of people flagellating themselves for Christ!

[punpirate]

7. Very clever... not.

Raising the rate of taxation makes it more regressive, while raising the cap does not. If the cap is raised, the "crisis" is solved for several more decades.

Business would scream bloody murder if their share goes up, as well.

And, no one wants to talk about the real problem--that there's going to be some severe pain in the form of tax increases when the Congress has to start paying back money from the fund to pay off loans when the money is needed to fund SS.

What seemed like a good idea in 1983 (borrowing at increased rates from the SS trust fund to offset deficits in the general fund), when the Reaganites needed a cover for the revenue losses created by dropping the top tax from 70% to 28%, is now starting to become a nightmare.

Talk by the Repugs that the fund is broke is meant to prepare the public for an eventuality they've planned on--never paying back the trust fund. Only with the dollar falling is it beginning to sink into their pointy little heads that defaulting on those SS notes sets in motion some real calamities.

[The White Tree]

18. I think you are right about that

If you listen to their talking points they sneak this in in a lot of places. For example they are quick to say that social security is not guaranteed to anyone.

How's that being divorced from reality? On the one hand they just proposed a bill to make it harder for the average American to declare bankruptcy and on the other they are saying that everyone needs private savings accounts because the government has no obligations to pay back what it borrows.

Or maybe that's the Schwartznegarian Do as I say Not as I do logic they are applying here.

[Weembo]

9. Question from the above-cap area

Does anyone have any numbers on how much of a benefit would result from raising the cap? I know that I and many others who have crossed the cap threshold would support raising the cap if it would truly help the system. Any links are appreciated.

[ohtransplant]

10. Santorum has to go!

He didn't mis-speak It's obviously a trial balloon for *'s sake.

This guy is bad for PA and bad for this country.

Show me where to send my check for the Casey campaign.

[Inland]

11. Fishing for some Dem to gullibly call for raising cap

So all the repubs can jump on Dems for wanting to raise taxes.

Forget it. Propose it and vote on it, if you want it. You're on your own, Mr. Frothy Mess.

[trogdor]

13. Joe Lieberman to the rescue.

I wonder what it would take to get ALL the Senate Democrats together on ANY issue - or at least get certain ones to STFU.

[napi21]

15. I don't think he was fishing. Shrub was asked about raising the cap

and hes answer was everything is on the table. There were a whole lot of Pubs who went ballistic over that one!

[Inland]

21. Same difference. There's nobody to AGREE WITH on raising the cap

So responding to trial balloons will leave Dems hanging with a label of tax hikers and no tax hike.

So just say no.

[GOPBasher]

20. My God their nerve. Cut taxes for billionaires, but then increase

the SS tax rate, which is a regressive tax, so the poor and middle class get hit the worst. This is basically stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: