8/29/20
Never before, to my knowledge, has a politician tried to buy votes on a national level. That's what we're seeing now, as President Trump grabs the edge of the Senate's power to intrude on payroll taxes, and with it, Social Security. Don't be surprised if, before the election, we get another stimulus payment, the unemployed get augmented benefits, and -- and -- goodness knows what else will be devised by Trump's and his advisers' craven little minds to convince us that Trump's presidency means a rainfall of cash for all.
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| A theater marquee in Oakland, CA says "Prevent Unwanted Presidencies with Hand Counted Paper Ballots." |
Trump can't touch payroll taxes himself. The Senate gets to do that. What the president wants to do is put off payroll taxes. The money wouldn't be taken from paychecks starting September 1, but they'd be due in April, like federal taxes. Businesses that agree to postpone payroll taxes for their employees will have to withhold more money in payroll taxes starting January 1 (slightly more than doubling the withheld tax) so that the government gets its money anyway.
That's unless the Senate decides to forgive the payroll tax altogether.
The point of Social Security was to enforce personal savings for the future. But in case anyone has forgotten, the payroll tax funds both Social Security and Medicare pretty much in real time, because the government doesn't actually set that money aside for Grandma. If the Senate were to forgive payroll taxes, Grandma might as well start eating cat food that very day. Fact is, the government has been having parties with the money we couldn't enjoy -- more precisely, waging wars with it.
It seems that Trump believes that payroll taxes belong to the government, not to the people whose future is supposed to be ensured by the tax. To Trump, any money that goes to the little people (as Leona Helmsley famously described people who sell their time for money) is money taken away from the government. At this point, it's not altogether clear whether our delusional president thinks of government finances as anything other than part of his own personal fortune.
No politicians have taken actions to defund Social Security or Medicare before, to my knowledge, although one could argue that the annual cost of living adjustment has been less than the actual cost of living. Both programs have broad support among voters, so it'll be a contentious day if Trump defunds the program, but that doesn't mean he won't do it. Trump actually ran his payroll-tax-holiday scheme past the IRS to make sure it was legal. That means he's serious.
We're looking at an abrupt end to a program we've paid into for our entire working lives. It's ours, remember?
It'll be entertaining (or upsetting) to see other giveaways in the weeks before this election is past us. We could call it "pork barrel" politics (an ugly name -- look up its history), but that's just for state legislators who want to get votes in local communities.
This threat by Donald Trump is a whole 'nother level of __________(you fill in the blank).
What, indeed, would you call this payroll tax holiday move by the Trump administration? Do you think he could get away with defunding Social Security if reelected? Is there any chance that his base would turn against him if he did?
"'Unwanted Presidencies' and how to prevent them." by Melinda Young Stuart is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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