RE: Explain Social Security plans

["Michael L. Coburn" <michael.l.coburn@gte.net>]

    Any congressperson who votes to repay the national debt with a tax
on wages alone should be run out of town on a rail.  And, yet, that is
exactly what is being proposed.  The national debt is NOT a result of
overzealous spending on SS;  it is a result of overspending on defense
and law enforcement.  Exempting capital gains, interest, dividends, and
other forms of non wage income from the repayment of the debt is simply
another nail in the coffin of the poor and a strong example of "the best
congress money can buy".

    I believe the debt should be repaid.  I believe that SS as we know
it has a very serious demographic problem.  I do NOT believe that
stealing the wage earners income is the proper solution.  SS should be a
*VERY FORGIVINGLY* means tested program to support the infirm in a
reasonable life style.  It should be pay as you go and funded with
consumption taxes.  "Saving" the current program through more wage theft
is NOT the right answer.

    A solution which removes the cap on taxable income and reduces the
wage tax and which provides for some progress in means testing is the
minimal reform that can be implemented which would do any good at all.
People will invest on their own if the government will quit stealing
their earnings.