by Stephen Moore

The Weekly Standard

03/01/05

The 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax is now levied only on the first $90,000 a worker makes each year. What President Bush said was that raising the cap (to perhaps $125,000 or even $200,000) was 'on the table.' This was a strategic blunder of the first order. Now even the strongest advocates of Social Security personal accounts are wondering what hefty price will have to be paid to enact them. ...

House majority leader Tom DeLay and others in the Republican leadership in Congress have rightly declared that any tax hike to 'pay for' Social Security reform is dead on arrival, especially in the more conservative House. Bush may gain a few Democratic votes by agreeing to raise taxes, but it appears he would lose far more Republicans in the bargain. In other words, this proposal is a net subtraction of votes for personal accounts...

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Informant: Thomas L. Knapp