the opinionist

With the Presidential hopefuls stealing an increasing portion of media attention … President George W Bush has begun the search for a positive legacy - or at least a neutral one. Something that (should we all survive the policies of the Bush Administration) we can look back on as a pleasant counter-weight to the plethora of incompetent and wholly negligent decisions dragging on this administration. In a moment of true ’shock and awe’ I read that wily old coot Robert Novak’s column in the Chicago SunTimes newspaper entitled ‘Will Bush Back Lifting Payroll Tax Cap?’ My immediate reaction? A sequential burst of vocal expletives followed by denial and then slow begrudging acceptance. ‘No way! Get out! Bloody Hell. Surely not. Oh bugger! Makes sense. Dear Lord help us.’

In a nutshell Mr. Novak (why won’t he retire) the beltway tipster supremo - proposes that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is in secret negotiations with both the Democrats and the core ’super-moderate’ Republicans to raise or perhaps eliminate entirely the current $97,500 cap placed on personal income subject to the Social Security tax.

The so-what? In 2004 President Bush tried - unsuccessfully - to build a plan to ’save’ Social Security from a miserable bankcruptcy within the next twenty years. Bush’s personal savings account plan was met with derision by the Democrats and a lukewarm reception (at best) by the ‘me me me’s in the Grand Old Party. Only the moderates - those touchy feely social democrats (I jest) - under whose label I align GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham and the wandering Democrat Sen. Joseph Lieberman - ran with the Bush solution and, therefore, into the political wilderness!

What’s new? Well - Bush lost the House and the Senate. Bush is labeled with a lost Iraq war. The ‘War on Terror’ has no end in sight. 2005 will be the year of Katrina and the Federal response debacle. Thanks to Enron - corporate scandal is by default associated with the GOP. GOP political fundraising is skewered by DeLay and Jack Abramoff associations. The list of mistakes, poor associations, God-awful decisions and squandered opportunities seem almost endless. Let’s face it - Bush is not scheduled for some Churchillian-type statue on Constitution Avenue. At least not this year.

By saving Social Security for future generations - Bush can at last find a legacy worthy of a compliment over Gin and Tonics before dinner at the Kennebunkport Country Club. The estimated cost to taxpayers of keep Social Security solvent for current retirees and baby-boomers? A trifle over $1 trillion to cover transition costs and ensure permanent stability for current and forecasted retirement obligations.

In 2004 the Democratics said something akin to ‘We applaud President Bush’s desire to fix social security but don’t ever again mention personal savings accounts - they detract from and compete with the very purpose of a federal social security program’. I took the expletives out of the quotes and boiled fifty two paragraphs of smug retorts into one sentence. Nice huh!? Bush pulled the plan and moved on.

Times are different. With nothing to lose - no Vice Presidential ambitions, no lingering loyalty to future GOP succession into the Oval Office - Bush might just decide to play the Democrats’ favorite tax game - ‘Bend over and touch your toes’.

In 2004 - Republican Senator for South Carolina - Lindsey Graham - said “Four things are necessary to save Social Security – presidential leadership, bipartisan support, the rejection of rigid ideology preventing workable solutions, and shared sacrifice by the American people. President Bush is the right person at the right time to help save Social Security.”

Bush just needs two of these four items now! - presidential direction and the rejection of rigid ideology. Bush has by all accounts abandoned the ideology of Conservative values and might have the spunk to make parlée with Pelosi.
On November 17 2004 in a speech at the Heritage Foundation Senator Graham said President Bush should raise the cap on which income earners pay Social Security tax. President Bush later increased the taxable-income limit from $87,900 to $90,000.

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham [AP, 9/11/06] - team player - quoted on the DSCS web site, “I know Iraq is a mess and we have screwed up seven ways from Sunday. We underestimated how hard it would be.”

The Heritage Foundation (a somewhat right-wing think-tank) attacks such a plan vigorously:

Excerpted:

Specifically, eliminating the cap on taxable wages would:

• Result in the largest tax increase in the history of the United States to raise $505 billion (in nominal dollars) over five years and almost $1.2 trillion over 10 years.
• Fail to save Social Security from bankruptcy ; the system’s insolvency date would be pushed back only seven years, from 2017 to 2024.
• Increase the top effective federal marginal tax rate on labor income to almost 52.5 percent, its highest level since the 1970s.
• Reduce the take-home pay of 10.4 million workers by an average of $4,907 in the first year alone after the cap is removed.
• Weaken the economy by reducing the number of job opportunities and savings ; in fiscal year (FY) 2011, the decline in job opportunities would exceed 1.1 million, and the loss in personal savings (adjusted for inflation) would amount to $39.5 billion.

The point is; and I am taking a long time getting to it! (My apologies …) President George W Bush wants a legacy and has nothing to lose. The Democrats - I think - would take a deal from Bush for Personal Income Accounts for current tax payers if Bush promises to eliminate or signficantly raise the tax limit on the Society Security Income Tax (up to $150,000 +) - thus screwing the ‘rich’. Such a lovely prospect and long-overdue for Ted Kennedy.
So why not? Bush retires and goes down in history as a partisan president - for the wrong bloody party! The scrunched, over-worked, over-taxed, under-valued and generally smacked-around middle-class pays the price for President George W Bush’s search for a positive legacy. A miserable ending courtesy of an incompetent President.
Sources:

• The Heritage Foundation
• Chicago Sun-Times | Robert Novak
• The Wall Street Journal | Opinion Journal | Tax Trap Article

Posted on January 9th, 2007 under 2008, Bush, Democrats, Middle Class, Republicans, Social Security •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback