The graph below from NPR.org is both insightful and fair (as is the accompanying article.)
But one thing has always struck me funny when discussing Social Security and Medicare with those on the left. When they are defending the benefits of the programs, they always refer to “contributions” into a social insurance system, and they sometimes argue that we shouldn’t include such contributions when calculating the federal tax burden.
But when these same people are defending the non-payment of income tax by the 47%, they are quick to note that many of that group pay or have paid Social Security and Medicare “taxes,” which, as we know, are heavy federal taxes.
So, my friends, you have to pick one: are they taxes or contributions?
Either way, they are taken from your paycheck involuntarily, so they are more like a tax. The thing that bothers me the most about the FICA tax is that it stops at $110,000. In this sense, it is a much more regressive tax. If social security were means tested, millions would fall off the rolls. David Stockman proposed this in his wonderful NY Times piece a month or so back. Worth a read.
Shaun…………..nothing is taken out of your paycheck involuntarily. When you applied for your job you had a Social Security Number that you had volunteered to get. When you got your job you volunteered to sign a W2 or W4 form. You volunteered to have money deducted from your paycheck,didn’t you? The whole Income Tax system is based on voluntary compliance,is it not? Of course,all along you could have refused to obtain a Social Security Number or if you had a number had it rescinded. You could have refused to sign a W2 or W4 and worked by contract,but then the people you wanted to worked for probably wouldn’t have hired you. Everything you have done has been voluntary even though you may have thought that it was mandatory. Lets face it,unless your involved in the American underground economy its impossible to earn a living without submitting to the status of a serf. Free men aren’t forced to pay into a Ponzi scheme. Free men don’t have money taken out of their pay or if their self employed send money into an IRS postbox. Freemen aren’t numbered.to be recorded,catalogued and followed all their lives to make sure that they pay their “fair share.” Government is a criminal enterprise. Aiding and abetting in that enterprise are your employer and his accountants. In the end Social Security was sold as a “Retirement Scheme” and that your “contributions” would be saved and put aside for you when you decided to stop working and retire. The truth is that Social Security is legally a tax. That the Social Security payouts are benefits. Both the tax and the benefits can be terminated any time by Congress. You have no equitable say in the matter. As an aside there is no “Trust Fund” or “Lock Box.” The fact is that all the Social Security revenue that was “paid into the “System” over the last 75 years has been spent. Social Security is now bankrupt and unsustainable. In the end you can thank Franklin Roosevelt for not only coming up with a fraudulent system but also lying about it.
I think, hope, someone’s tongue is in their cheek (I’m looking at you jerry).
A rose by any other name… “Contribution”, “Tax”, call it whatever you want so long as someone has the stones to do something about these systems, particularly Medicare and Social Security, that are taking us to financial ruin.