Op-Ed Columnist: Maestro of Chutzpah by Paul Krugman, NYTimes

[T]he reason Social Security is in fairly good shape is that during the 1980’s the Greenspan commission persuaded Congress to increase the payroll tax, which supports the program.

The payroll tax is regressive: it falls much more heavily on middle- and lower-income families than it does on the rich. In fact, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, families near the middle of the income distribution pay almost twice as much in payroll taxes as in income taxes. Yet people were willing to accept a regressive tax increase to sustain Social Security.

Now the joke’s on them. Mr. Greenspan pushed through an increase in taxes on working Americans, generating a Social Security surplus. Then he used that surplus to argue for tax cuts that deliver very little relief to most people, but are worth a lot to those making more than $300,000 a year. And now that those tax cuts have contributed to a soaring deficit, he wants to cut Social Security benefits.

The point, of course, is that if anyone had tried to sell this package honestly — “Let’s raise taxes and cut benefits for working families so we can give big tax cuts to the rich!” — voters would have been outraged. So the class warriors of the right engaged in bait-and-switch.

James writes:

I just wanted to be sure you caught the Krugman article today. This clear explanation of why Greenspan is the ultra-rich’s class warfare foot-soldier should be REQUIRED READING for all Americans. Krugman is THE man! (even though he once was an economist in the Reagan administration)

How many millions of dollars do you think someone like Bill Gates has saved since Duhbya assumed office? Now your retirement will be delayed AND your benefits — the money you contributed — will be cut. Because of the Radical Right’s insane mission to destroy the Federal government. mjh