Obama wants to raise taxes on social security
Senator Obama is a tax and spend liberal. There is no doubt about that. He supports raising the capital gains tax even though he admits that it will not increase government revenue. He argues that raising this tax is merely an issue of “fairness.” He does not seem to care about the harmful economic impact of raising such taxes.
Consistent with his redistributionist tendencies, Obama also wants to raise the payroll tax on Social Security for anyone making over $250,000. Here is a good critique of that policy from Lawrence Lindsey:
“Obama’s plans would provide a powerful incentive for the highest-earning Americans to work less, invest less and contribute less to the economy.”
This would fundamentally change the purpose of Social Security. It was never meant to be a welfare program based on a progressive taxation scheme. It was only meant to provide income to retirees with money from current workers.
The federal government doesn’t need more revenue, it needs to cut spending and lower tax rates. Otherwise, if Obama gets his way and pushes through massive new spending on things like health care or universal pre-school, he will have to substantially increase taxes on everyone to pay for it.
With the economy slowly moving along, the worst thing we could do is increase taxes and spending, and cause capital to flee our shores. Let’s hope the American people realize this before they sign on to Obamania.