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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDean Baker: Cutting Social Security and Not Taxing Wall Street
Cutting Social Security and Not Taxing Wall StreetWednesday, 15 May 2013 09:15
By Dean Baker, Truthout | Op-Ed
As we move towards the fifth anniversary of the great financial crisis of 2008, people should be outraged that cutting Social Security is now on the national agenda, while taxing Wall Street is not. After all, if we take at face value the claims made back in 2008 by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretaries Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner, Wall Street excesses brought the economy to the brink of collapse.
But now the Wall Street behemoths are bigger than ever and President Obama is looking to cut the Social Security benefits of retirees. That will teach the Wall Street boys to be more responsible in the future.
Most people are now familiar with Presidents Obamas proposal to cut Social Security by reducing the annual cost of living adjustment. While the final formula is somewhat convoluted, the net effect is to reduce benefits by an average of roughly 3.0 percent.
Since Social Security benefits account for more than 70 percent of the income of a typical retiree, this cut is more than a 2.0 percent reduction in income. By comparison, a wealthy couple earning $500,000 a year would see a hit to their after-tax income of just 0.6 percent from the tax increase that President Obama put in place last year. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16372-cutting-social-security-and-not-taxing-wall-street
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Dean Baker: Cutting Social Security and Not Taxing Wall Street (Original Post)
marmar
May 2013
OP
xchrom
(108,903 posts)1. du rec. nt
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)2. K&R
byeya
(2,842 posts)3. Dean Baker has an enviable record of being correct on the tough calls the past 5 or more years.
He has a newspaper column but it isn't carried by many M$M papers(wonder why?) and is worth searching out.
"So the Obama administration wants us to believe that it is willing to cut the Social Security benefits of retiree living on $15,000 a year in Social Security by $450 but it opposes a Wall Street speculation tax because it is concerned that investors with $100,000 in a 401(k) may pay a few dollars a year in additional trading costs. Only a reporter with the Washington Post would believe a story like that.
The other part of the Obama administrations story is equally laughable. The cost of financial transactions has plummeted in the last four decades because of computers. Even the Ellison tax rate would just raise costs back to their mid-80s level. The Harkin-DeFazio tax rate would probably still leave costs lower than they were in 2000."
The other part of the Obama administrations story is equally laughable. The cost of financial transactions has plummeted in the last four decades because of computers. Even the Ellison tax rate would just raise costs back to their mid-80s level. The Harkin-DeFazio tax rate would probably still leave costs lower than they were in 2000."
Corporate Profits Hit Record High While Worker Wages Hit Record Low
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/12/03/1270541/corporate-profits-wages-record/?mobile=nc
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their promises or excuses.