Obama & The GOP’s Social Security Trojan Horse
December 22nd, 2010at 05:46pm Posted by Eli
Rep Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Eileen Applebaum make the latest case for why the payroll tax holiday that Obama is so proud of is such a huge threat to Social Security. And I keep coming back to the same question: Was a payroll tax cut really the only way to put extra money in people’s hands? What was wrong with the Making Work Pay tax credit, which actually put more money in the hands of those who needed it?
There was either no thought put into this choice of vehicle, or considerable thought. And the potential consequences are so obvious that it’s difficult to imagine anyone overlooking them, so I find it almost impossible to believe that Obama did.
Just like I find it almost impossible to believe that he didn’t think that a deficit commission stocked and staffed with Pete Peterson apparatchiks and other mortal enemies of Social Security would come up with a plan that didn’t harm it, or that such a plan would acquire instant legitimacy even if it didn’t reach the 14-out-of-18-vote threshold that was supposed to be necessary to trigger a vote in Congress.
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Barack Obama is a much greater threat to Social Security than George W. Bush ever was. He disguises betrayal as bipartisanship and compromise, but it is betrayal all the same, calculated and deliberate.
Entry Filed under: Obama,Politics,Republicans,Social Security,Taxes
