Support Social Security against the Republican plan to take this important benefit away from beneficiaries
"we share the alarm of President Biden and Barack Obama at proposals from leading Republican senators to terminate the hitherto unbreakable guarantee of benefits under both Social Security and Medicare"
Echo letter to the editor of The New York Times:
Re “G.O.P. Signals Plans to Shrink Social Security” (front page, of the NYT, on Nov. 3):
Your article discussing the partisan wrangling over Republicans’ plans for (spiking!) Social Security and Medicare is missing an important piece — discussion of a viable solution other than cutting benefits.
As descendants of the creators of Social Security — F.D.R.; his vice president Henry A. Wallace; his labor secretary, Frances Perkins; and his commerce secretary Harry Hopkins — we share the alarm of President Biden and Barack Obama at proposals from leading Republican senators to terminate the hitherto unbreakable guarantee of benefits under both Social Security and Medicare — benefits earned by a lifetime of payroll taxes taken out of every paycheck.
Yes, both programs face solvency challenges. But, there is an obvious solution other than curbing benefits: Eliminate the cap on the amount of income that is subject to the payroll tax — currently $147,000 — which ridiculously favors the wealthy. A C.E.O. who earns $10 million pays less than 0.01 percent, an incomprehensible injustice to a nurse paying 6.2 percent.
We understand the toxicity of tax increases in this political season. So let us fervently channel our politically savvy ancestors. To honor the promises made generations ago to American workers, make today’s wealthiest pay the same payroll tax rate as everybody else.
Henry Scott Wallace
Jim Roosevelt Jr.
Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall
June Hopkins
 |
| August 14, 1935 - The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. In addition to several provisions for general welfare, the new Act created a social insurance program designed to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement. |
Echo letter to the editor of The New York Times:
Re “G.O.P. Signals Plans to Shrink Social Security” (front page, of the NYT, on Nov. 3):
Your article discussing the partisan wrangling over Republicans’ plans for (spiking!) Social Security and Medicare is missing an important piece — discussion of a viable solution other than cutting benefits.
As descendants of the creators of Social Security — F.D.R.; his vice president Henry A. Wallace; his labor secretary, Frances Perkins; and his commerce secretary Harry Hopkins — we share the alarm of President Biden and Barack Obama at proposals from leading Republican senators to terminate the hitherto unbreakable guarantee of benefits under both Social Security and Medicare — benefits earned by a lifetime of payroll taxes taken out of every paycheck.
Yes, both programs face solvency challenges. But, there is an obvious solution other than curbing benefits: Eliminate the cap on the amount of income that is subject to the payroll tax — currently $147,000 — which ridiculously favors the wealthy. A C.E.O. who earns $10 million pays less than 0.01 percent, an incomprehensible injustice to a nurse paying 6.2 percent.
We understand the toxicity of tax increases in this political season. So let us fervently channel our politically savvy ancestors. To honor the promises made generations ago to American workers, make today’s wealthiest pay the same payroll tax rate as everybody else.
Henry Scott Wallace
Jim Roosevelt Jr.
Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall
June Hopkins
Labels: G.O.P., Henry Scott Wallace, Jim Roosevelt Jr., June Hopkins, President Roosevelt, The New York Times, Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall
posted by Juliana L'Heureux | 6:56 AM
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