Hood Robin

If that's the reverse of Robin Hood, then that's what I'm talkin' about.

The problems that we are now facing because of the large tax cuts instigated by President Bush have long galled me. The argument used in making the tax cuts was that "it's our money, so we should have it returned to us." The rationale for having larger tax cuts go to wealthier Americans was that "they pay more taxes, so they should get more back." It's certainly true that the money given back through tax cuts was "our money." That's where taxes come from. My pocket. Yours. It's certainly true that some people pay more taxes than others. I work for a non-profit; my salary is low (really!); I pay less income taxes than a whole lot of people.

But the problems caused by those tax cuts have been quite serious. Not only do we have a ballooning national debt, we have a declining dollar, severe restrictions on spending for domestic programs, and no way out that I can see for a health care system in crisis.

Now we come to the discussion of Social Security. It gives me a total headache. Without the knowledge or the desire to involve myself in all of the math involved, I still think it's a boondoggle. Just another way to take a swipe at poor folks and line the pockets of the rich. The arguments in favor of privatizing Social Security is that it is in crisis, that we are fast approaching the day when less money will flow into the system than will be paid out, that private accounts will give the individual more control over their future benefits as well as giving them something to leave as a legacy for their descendants.

But there is apparently no crisis. In 2018, we'll reach the point that was planned for and understood in 1983--current income for the program will be less than current outlays, SO the program will have to dip into its savings account: The Social Security Trust Fund. That's the money that we--you and I--have been paying into the program all these years, more money than was actually needed to keep the program going, just SO that there would be a surplus in 2018 and we'd have enough money to keep paying benefits at their promised level.

That surplus exists now as part of the national debt. The government has borrowed that money to pay for other things, like war or tax cuts or even health care. But the government has always--until now--promised to pay it back. Even now the Constitution still requires that it be paid back.

But the President is out and about the country now saying that there is no trust fund, that 2018 is the year in which SS goes bankrupt. It would appear that the only reason that this could happen is if the government defaults on its promise to pay back what it borrowed.

So now the light finally comes on in my feeble brain: The money that was used to give tax cuts, more to the rich because "they paid more taxes," is going to be paid for with money that was paid into the system (to save for the rainy day in 2018) by poor folks, middle class folks.

How can I say that? You only pay SS taxes on the first $90,000 of earned income. If you earn more than that, you don't pay FICA. If you have unearned income (investments, capital gains) you don't pay FICA on that. It's just us working folks that paid all that money into the Trust Fund.

So we pay, they get the tax cut, and we lose Social Security. If that ain't Hood Robin, then maybe it's just plain Robbing Hood.

I'd say that that sucks canal water, but it's way worse than that.