TAXES: Why it doesn't compute
I filed for and have been receiving Social Security for about two years. The second Wednesday of every month they send me a check. I still haven’t gotten used to getting something that I “didn’t” work for.
My wife and I have been married for 46 years and have never collected, or applied for, one penny of unemployment, welfare or food stamps. We believe in the need for all of those programs, but never needed them.
A few weeks ago, I heard a debate, on one of the Sunday talk shows, about cutting Social Security. The debate was between a right wing Republican senator (his name doesn’t matter), and a senator who was a Democrat. The Republican repeated several times, as though it was the latest right wing talking point, “that the average Social Security recipient will receive THREE TIMES what he or she has paid in!”
Wow, “three times what I paid in.” Can you imagine that one of us plebs would receive THREE TIMES what we paid in… in FIFTY YEARS. In FIFTY YEARS!
Now when Mitt Romney returns FIFTY TIMES what his investors put in, in only a few years: “Isn’t that wonderful. He should run for president.”
It’s almost like we have two different standards of “what is a fair return.” The “us” and the “them.” Some people say I am trying to start a class war. My message to you is that, “We have already had a class war, and we plebs, have LOST.”
I’ve mentioned before that the Republicans are good at redefining words. We could use the same method to solve the problems with Social Security. First we acknowledge that Social Security is just “Welfare” for old people. And, that the Social Security Tax is not retirement savings, it’s just a TAX. Just Welfare. Just a TAX.
So, if it is just Welfare, we stop giving it to people who don’t need it. That saves us about $40 billion a year. And, if it’s just a TAX, we would ask, why don’t some people have to pay THE TAX?
If I make my living as a woodworker, I have to pay 15.2 percent Social Security tax on every penny I earn. Then, I get to pay state and federal income TAX of about 25 percent on the same amount. But, let’s imagine that I make my living, yelling to my wife, “Honey, did that Royalty or Dividend check come in yet?” I don’t have to pay that 15.2 percent Social Security, and I get a break on state and federal income taxes, also. When Mitt Romney had $22 million in income (2010)…he paid a lower percent, total tax (14 percent is the rumor) than I did… just for Social Security.
No Social Security tax on Rents, Dividends, Royalties, Rich people’s Interest, Capital Gains. (Are you getting a trend here? Income that the rich receive.) Oh, also, if you earn an SI $10 million salary that is subject to Social Security, you only have to pay on the first $110,000. How lucky is that?
Don’t give welfare to people who don’t need it! Make everyone pay the Social Security TAX! With those simple changes, Social Security has no money worries for about 150 years. That wasn’t that hard, was it? Will that reform take place? Not as long as we keep electing people who yell, “Honey, did that dividend check come in yet?”
HARLEY DUFF
Coeur d’Alene