Having ruled out higher payroll taxes (for now), the Bush administration is now dropping hints that it will consider other revenue changes to fund “privatization” (a word that seems to cry out for scare quotes these days), e.g. raising the ceiling on income subject to SocSec taxation. (ABC News via MargRev). The biggest hint comes the White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card: “Let’s get smart people like Alan Greenspan involved.” Hmmm, like this?
In 1983, Greenspan’s recommended legislation “moved tax increases scheduled for the future into the present, raised self-employment taxes, taxed benefits for single people with incomes of $25,000 and couples with incomes over $32,000, expanded the program to new federal employees, and prohibited state and local government employees from leaving the system. The reform delayed one cost-of-living increase, but this was more than outweighed by the onerous tax increases.”
