Our House of Representatives (the House) and our Senate, with the President’s urging, today (12/23/11) passed a sixty (60) days extension of the 2.00% Social Security Withholding Tax reduction. Big Whoop!
For many moons we have been told that Social Security is fast running out of cash, and will leave surviving children, disabled workers and retirees to twist in the wind within the next twenty years or so. How does the President, the Senate and the House propose to deal with that stark fact? Well, of course…cut the amount of dollars going into your Social Security pool by billions of dollars every month. By the way one billion dollars looks like this: $1,000,000,000.00.
How to make up for the short fall? Why just add a tax to home sales at closing. With residential home sales on life support that really makes sense doesn’t it? Well, that is what has been proposed.
Stealing from a popular comic strip of many years ago, “We has discovered the enemy, and he is us.” We, you and I, keep sending people to the House and Senate who talk a good game until they land in D.C., but nothing seems to change…because just as soon as they get there, their primary object becomes getting re-elected…they start working for “The Party” and you and I get thrown under the bus. The old guard gains control because they hang on longest, and they control the levers of Congress, while the rest learn to, “go along to get along”.
A heartbeat away from the Presidency sits a complete doofus, a party hack from a tiny mid-Atlantic state the population of which would easily fit into a small county in Texas. Third in line for the Presidency is the Speaker of the House, who talked a great game until he had to defend the House’s alternate to the latest Senate fiasco, the two month extension of the Social Security tax reduction that has proved to be of zero value as a stimulant to our sagging economy. Harry Truman famously said, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.” After Thursday’s cave in, Speaker of the House Boehner should take President Truman’s advice and allow the House to elect a new Speaker with “True Grit”, or at least someone who can place the House Republicans’ premise before the public in a manner that can’t be demagogued by the White House or  his “friends” across the aisle.
Meanwhile, all you guys and gals who rejoice over your continuing 2%”tax cut”, just remember to keep your compaints to yourself when your Social Security benefits are less than expected on judgement day in the future. Then, you can blame Washington all you want, but just remember December 23,2011, and the big favor your president bestowed on you just before he split the scene for Hawaii and his $4,000,000.00 little Christmas get away…paid for by YOU, by the way.
Carpe Diem
