Wrong Tax Cut

It Adds to the Deficit.

I know I watch too much television. There, I admit it but what can I do about it? At this time the temperature is in the thirty to forty degree range outside (a little warmer inside) and large parts of the ground are still covered with the snow that fell almost a week ago.

Yesterday morning I heard a newsreader say that the two percent payroll (FICA) tax cut was now in effect and would mean that workers would save (what I understand to be) about 143 billion dollars a year. I heard nothing about what that would mean to Social Security and Medicare or the budget deficit. This year the money payed into the Social Security Trust Fund through the payroll tax (before the two percent cut) would have been about what will be paid out in Social Security and Medicare benefits but after that cut the Federal Treasury will have to borrow that much (143 billion dollars) more money to buy back some of those "Special Government Securities" (in the Trust Fund Lockbox) (ha-ha) in order to keep Social Security afloat. Then that will be blamed on us seniors who are retired.

All that talk about cutting the deficit by a hundred billion dollars has been rendered null and void by the misguided vote of congress and a few strokes of the President's pen. How ironic.

A few days ago e-mails were sent out to seven would-be newspeople using the same text which is copied below.

"In a posting on williamlee100.blogspot.com titled "Wake up America" and dated Nov. 24, 2010 you can find in the first paragraph these words; "That money has been, and probably still is, been used as what amounts to a high stake slush fund."

At about 5:30 pm central time on Brett Baier's "Special Report", Jim Angle when referring to the problems with Social Security and what had happened to the more than $2.5 trillion in the Social Security Trust Fund made this remark; "Some people call it a slush fund."

Could there be a connection or is Fox News just now catching up?"

Needless to say, there has been no comment in response to those e-mails but on the otherhand, I wasn't expecting any. I think I will send a copy of this posting to my U.S. Representative along with my thanks for her good work. Meanwhile thanks for your time and input, stay tuned - William