Originally published June 25 2005
Columnist says saving social security shouldn't be part of Democrat agenda
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
This editorial from the Cato Institute talks about why social security doesn't actually align with other liberal ideals.
When he broke ranks with his party's leadership last month and proposed an alternative to President Bush's push for personal retirement accounts, Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida said, "I have the largest amount [sic] of Social Security recipients of any Democrat anywhere in the country.
He has proposed the largest marginal tax increase this country has seen in decades: a 6 percent tax hike on all income over the current $90,000 payroll tax cap.
As Wexler noted in his press conference, his party should be looking for "alternatives that are true to our Democratic values."
But is Social Security's current structure consistent with Democratic values, as Wexler---and the Democratic leadership---has declared, or are the Democrats falling all over themselves to defend a legacy of discrimination?
But because of the program's age, aspects of Social Security discriminate against many modern families, particularly gay couples, unmarried couples, dual-earner couples, and divorcees.
Women who do remain married beyond the eligibility period but divorce later not only have a lower earnings record (if they raised children) but are forever tied to the earnings of their ex-husbands and are ineligible to receive the possibly higher benefits available from a subsequent marriage that doesn't last a full 10 years---this feature can be particularly harmful to older Americans who wish to marry.
The overwhelming support for the status quo from the political left is shocking, and should be appalling to members of the Democratic Party or anyone who holds the liberal values that Wexler extols.
Bringing the system into solvency through tax hikes on labor and productivity will do untold damage to America's economic growth in order to protect a system that systematically discriminates against core constituencies of the Democratic Party, a system that disproportionately benefits white women who have never worked a day in their lives over all other groups.
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