The Great Yellow Turd's tax plan rumored to be out tomorrow possibly incl DEFUNDING SOCIAL SECURITY [View all]

[CousinIT]

PLEASE SHARE FAR AND WIDE -- AND CALL YOUR REPS MONDAY ( 202-224-3121 ) AND ASK THEM TO OPPOSE ANY FICA TAX CUTS OR OTHER EFFORTS TO CUT OR DESTROY SOCIAL SECURITY!

Having suffered defeat on their frontal attacks against Social Security, Trump and his Republican allies in Congress appear to be contemplating a stealth attack, instead. In the 1980s, Republicans, who had long tried but failed to cut government programs directly, discovered a new tactic. They realized that they could undermine government and eventually force cuts to spending by cutting taxes and, in their words, starve the beast. Now, Trump is making plans to use that same tactic against Social Security.

Not only would the Trump proposal starve Social Security of dedicated revenue, it would ultimately destroy it. Social Security is not a government handout. It is wage insurance that the American people earn, as part of their compensation, and, indeed, pay for with deductions from their pay.

. . .

It is common today to refer to FICA premiums as payroll taxes, but that is misleading in two respects. First, workers don’t have payrolls. More fundamentally, these are premiums, not mere taxes. Referring to Social Security premiums as taxes blurs the distinction between them and taxes that are held in the general fund and can be used for any Constitutional purpose that Congress chooses.

Unlike those general revenues, Social Security revenues are held in trust and can be used only for Social Security. Because no benefits can be paid unless their cost is covered by Social Security’s dedicated revenue and because Social Security has no ability to borrow money, it does not and cannot add to the deficit.

Trump’s proposal would change all of that. The fact that beneficiaries have purchased their benefits with contributions gives them a strong claim to those benefits. This is essential because there is generally a very long lag time – forty or more years – from the moment workers begin to contribute to Social Security and the receipt of benefits.

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Those numbers tell the story. Trump’s real goal is the destruction of Social Security.

No one should be fooled by Trump’s campaign promise not to cut Social Security. Before he became a candidate, he called it a Ponzi scheme and advocated privatizing it. He chose, as his vice president, Mike Pence, who complained that the Bush privatization proposal didn’t go far enough, fast enough. As President, he has chosen a staunch opponent of Social Security, Mick Mulvaney, as his budget director, and another staunch opponent, Tom Price, as Secretary of Health and Human Services (one of Social Security’s trustees.) This latest proposal is in keeping with his actions and his earlier, more honest statements of his views.

Americans should hold Trump accountable for his promises not to cut Social Security or Medicare. But they should also remember his earlier attacks on these programs, and be on guard for this, and other, Trojan horses that would promise working Americans “gifts” while fundamentally destroying the economic protections they have earned and deserve.

https://www.socialsecurityworks.org/2017/04/11/trumps-trojan-horse-attack-social-security/