ALERT - SOCIAL SECURITY FUNDING IN JEOPARDY FROM U.S. SENATE, U.S. HOUSE & PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SO-CALLED MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUT BILLS

In
President
Obama’s State of the Union Speech on January 24, 2012, he
stated that
he was willing to work with Republicans on Entitlement
Reform - This means cuts
and changes in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
according to Senator
Bernie Sanders on MSNBC News Today, January 25, 2012.




SEE
MORE INFORMATION BELOW:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/payroll-tax-cut-raises-worries-about-social-securitys-future-funding/2011/12/28/gIQAVKZOPP_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines



THE
WASHINGTON POST - DECEMBER
29, 2011




Since the insurance
program’s inception in 1935, many changes to Social Security
have been enacted
or attempted. Here’s a look at some memorable moments in
Social Security’s
history.

By Jia Lynn Yang, Published: December 29, 2011



By
extending the payroll tax cut, Congress and
the administration have quietly made a critical change in how
Social Security
is funded — one that some in Washington worry could undermine
the program’s
foundation if lawmakers keep renewing the tax break.



For
the first time in the program’s history, tens of billions of
dollars from the
government’s general pool of revenue are being funneled to the
Social Security
trust fund to make up for the revenue lost to the tax cut.
Roughly
$110 billion will be automatically shifted from the Treasury
to the trust
fund to cover this year’s cut, according to the Social Security Board of
Trustees.
An additional $19 billion, it is estimated, will be necessary
to pay for
the two-month extension.



The
tax cut is supposed to be temporary. But as squabbles over
this issue and the
Bush tax cuts have revealed, short-term tax cuts in
Washington have a way of
sticking around longer than planned, especially as economic
growth remains slow
and lawmakers are wary of raising anyone’s tax bill.



The
prospect of policymakers continually turning to the payroll
tax as a way of
providing economic stimulus troubles experts, some lawmakers
and both public
trustees of the Social Security trust fund. Their concern:
that Social
Security will lose its status as a protected benefit owed to
every working
American and instead become politically vulnerable, just
like any other
government program.



And
as this year’s debate about the nation’s debt showed, nothing
is off limits to
the political brinkmanship that has come to dominate
Washington. “It’s a
grave step for Social Security,” said
Charles Blahous, one of two public trustees for Social
Security and a research
fellow with the Hoover Institution. “It just seems to me
the program both
financially and politically will be on a lot rockier
footing.”



Robert
Reischauer, the other public trustee and president of the
Urban Institute, said
extending the payroll tax cut another year during high
unemployment seems
justified. But it “could, if it continues for a substantial
period of time,
undermine one of the foundational arguments that makes the
Social Security
program inviolate.”

• 
  
• 
  

Since its inception under President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Social Security program has been
premised on a
simple contract: Americans pay into the program’s trust fund
over years of
paychecks through the payroll tax. In return, when they
retire, they receive
monthly benefits.





The
payroll tax cut changes that. Instead being a protected
program with its own
stream of funding, Social Security, by taking money from
general revenue,
becomes more akin to other government initiatives such as
Pentagon spending or
clean-air regulation — programs that rely on income taxes
and political
jockeying for support.



“All
of a sudden Social Security will have to compete with every
other program,
whereas before it had its own dedicated revenue,” said Nancy Altman, co-director of Social Security
Works, an advocacy group. “It’s breaking the kind of firewall
that has always
existed between the trust fund and the operating fund.” She added: “The biggest
concern is that this
was done without any hearings, without any apparent regard for
the impact on
Social Security.”

• 
  
• 
  

The fund has been built up over time by
contributions from the 12.4 percent payroll tax, of which
employees and
employers each pay 6.2 percent. The temporary tax break
reduced the share paid
by employees by 2 percentage points. Altman
said that the tax had never been reduced before, and the most
it has been
raised at any time is 0.5 percentage points.



“We’ve never really monkeyed around
with Social Security before,” said Blahous. “Until now it was
understood the
payroll tax was supposed to do one thing. It wasn’t supposed
to be a stimulus
mechanism. Now the payroll tax is this variable thing that
goes up and down
according to other economic conditions. That is a real
transformation of what
that money is supposed to do.”

The pressure to cut the tax came
from the country’s slow-growing economy. Last December,
Republican lawmakers
fought to extend the George W. Bush tax cuts, which were about
to expire, while
the White House pushed for a tax credit called Making Work Pay.
Their
compromise: a two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts, a year of
extended
unemployment benefits and a one-year payroll tax cut that
effectively replaced
Obama’s tax credit idea…”



During the fight earlier this month,
Democrats borrowed from the Republican playbook, arguing that
reverting to the
old rate would be a tax hike. And economists worried that allowing the cut to expire
would dampen economic growth in 2012 by as much as two-thirds of
a percentage
point.

The payroll tax cut could be here to
stay for a while. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.)
has said he
will appoint a conference committee to search for ways to extend
the two-month
cut for all of 2012.



Blahous
said Social Security will be facing enough financial pressures
in the years to
come without the payroll tax cut complicating matters. This year, the Social
Security system
projects that it will pay out $46 billion more in benefits
than it will
collect in cash. It made up for the shortfall by redeeming
Treasury bonds
bought in years when there were cash surpluses.




Lawmakers on both sides of the
aisle, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Jon Kyl
(R-Ariz.) and dozens of House Democrats, have expressed concerns about the
impact of the payroll tax cut on Social Security. “Whether
you’re on the left
or the right, you should really dislike this,” said Blahous.
“It has been
somewhat mystifying, the determination to do this. I just
think it’s
shortsightedness.” End






Note: You
may reach any U.S. Congressman or U.S.
Senator in Washington, D.C. at this

Number: (1-866)
220-0044 Protect
Social Security – Make a
Call Today





Key
Senators to Contact:
Key
House Members to Contract:


Senator
Harry Reid
U.S.
Congressman Mike Thompson

Senator
Dianne Feinstein
U.S.
Congressman George Miller

Senator
Barbara Boxer
U.S.
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi

Senator
John Kerry
U.S.
Congressman Henry Waxman

Senator
Bernie Sanders
U.S.
Congressman S. Levin

Senator
Max Bacus
U.S.
Congressman Becera

Senator
Cardin
&
Your Congressman & Your
Senator


There
are several U.S.
Congressional Bills that would undermine Social Security
Funding:




H.R.3765
-- Temporary Payroll Tax Cut
Continuation Act of 2011 (Received in Senate - RDS) TITLE
I--TEMPORARY
PAYROLL TAX RELIEF
SEC. 101. EXTENSION OF PAYROLL TAX
HOLIDAY.

This bill reduces the SSI
Withholding-Undermines Social Security Funding








S.1549
-- American
Jobs Act of 2011 (Placed on Calendar Senate - PCS)

TITLE
I--RELIEF FOR WORKERS AND
BUSINESSES
Subtitle
A--Payroll Tax Relief
SEC. 101. TEMPORARY PAYROLL TAX CUT FOR
EMPLOYERS, EMPLOYEES
AND THE SELF-EMPLOYED.

This bill reduces the SSI Withholding-Undermines
Social Security
Funding



http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/jobs_act.pdf

The Payroll Tax Holiday is another way to
state that Social
Security Funding is to be dramatically reduced through
reductions in SSI
withholding…the President has advocated that businesses be
allowed to also
reduce the SSI withholding they pay for their
employees…giving corporations
another huge tax break at public expense.
This is disguised by calling it a business and
employee tax holiday.





Other
Legislation:

PATRIOT Act, 90-day extension of certain provisions	H.R.514	P.L.112-3
PATRIOT Act, extend certain provisions	S.990	P.L.112-14