Published August 19, 2020
Dear Editor,
Anyone
paying into or collecting Social Security should be angry about the President’s
recent Executive Order deferring payment of the individual payroll tax. This is nothing more than the President using
your money to buy your vote. The
corruption implicit in that is bad enough, but worse still his scheme will
burden working families with a huge tax liability on January 1st,
and threatens the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund so that current
and future retirees may also be hurt.
Here’s why.
While he defers payment through December 31st, he cannot forgive the taxes due. As a result, when, two months after the election, January 1st comes around wage earners will still owe the tax.
This will place a tremendous burden on people who live paycheck-to-paycheck since additional money will have to be withheld from their earnings. For higher wage earners covered by the deferral it will mean less discretionary money to spend in the new-year.
The double whammy of lost income for these two groups threatens an even wider population because reduced consumer spending will have a negative impact on the economy at a time when it is still staggering toward recovery from the current COVID-19 recession. So, what appears to be a tax gift from the President is actually a time bomb waiting to explode. Compounding the corruption of his vote-buying scheme is his claim that, if reelected, he will defuse the bomb by forgiving the taxes due.
After manufacturing a crisis in order to buy votes, he is saying the only solution for its aftereffects is to vote for him based on an iffy promise.
To forgive taxes he will need to have the
cooperation of Congress, the branch of government constitutionally authorized
to alter the tax code. Considering that Congress
has been in bipartisan opposition to a payroll tax holiday, he probably won’t
be able to deliver on that promise, and that’s assuming he is reelected.
The danger we face doesn’t stop there. The President in remarks during his signing ceremony said he will propose doing away with the payroll tax if reelected. He did not say what he would replace it with.
Since the payroll tax supports payment of Social Security benefits, unless another source of funding is found, the only outcome possible from ending the payroll tax is ending Social Security.
I, like many seniors, paid into the program with the understanding that Social Security would pay me back in retirement. Sixty-three million Americans rely on Social Security.
Their income is now threatened
by the President’s ill-conceived and incomplete proposal to wipe out their
Social Security.
Working families and senior citizens have plenty of reasons to worry about the President’s recent Executive Order and to call on the President to rescind it.
If his blatant vote-buying scheme is allowed to stand, I am afraid all of us, Social Security beneficiaries present and future, will be the losers.
Sincerely,
David Plunkett
