Reagan lowers taxes on higher income and then turns around with the most significant slight of hand ever! He raises the SS/Medicare tax. That is base broadening for sure!I'm glad to see you finally agree with me that SS/Medicare is a Ponzi scheme.
I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out how by cutting taxes on higher wages and increased taxing on all wages under what was it 65k at the time (as that what the SS tax did)?....would create more income inequality. Which it did.
It also skews the budget as lawmakers then use the surplus SS/Medicare as a way to hide the deficits on the discretionary side of the Federal tax aisle. Originally Posted by WTF
Before Reagan, people were dragging about 3X more out of social security and Medicare than what they put in. And that's after discounting for the time value of money, between when they put the money in and when it came out. Admittedly a lot of that was because of demographics and when when the programs started up. But is that fair?
Now you drag out 30% more than what you put in. Still a good deal for the people who are currently recipients of social security and Medicare
As to the income inequality, yeah, like I said a couple of pages back, you're really not that concerned with deficits. Rather you believe mainly the tax system should be modified to reduce inequality, regardless of whether the changes make us all poorer. And as Lusty Lad more or less said, you appear to think that 1% of the population can be taxed enough to create a Social Democrat paradise. Do you want to get rid of payroll tax contributions and have the 1% pay for retirement and social security too? Or do you think the politicians have the balls to impose higher taxes on American voters of ordinary means? How do you think that will go over? It won't. You implement programs like the Build Back Better bill in the form proposed by Sanders or Biden and you'll just see the national debt continue to spiral upwards. Because 1% of the population, which is already paying 39% of the income tax, doesn't have enough money to pay for everything.