Monday, December 13, 2010

On Social Security, Bernie Sanders gets support from the right

Here’s another problem: Does anyone think that Congress will be able to hold this “one-year” holiday on a portion of Social Security taxes to just one year if unemployment, come Christmas 2011, is still closer to 10 percent than to 5 percent? Politically, it’s going to be hard for members of either party, ahead of an election, to start taking more cash out of people’s paychecks.

That's Nicole Gelinas writing at National Review -- and it's pretty much the same point that Bernie Sanders made during his Friday Filibuster: the payroll tax holiday is going to feel pretty nice this coming year, I'm certain, but if it remains a permanent feature of the tax landscape -- and it's going to be difficult to reinstate -- well, that will do more to undermine Social Security than all the failed privatization plans put together. If Nicole Gelinas and Bernie Sanders can agree on this point, who is left to disagree?

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