The big social security 'rip-off'

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Senator Moynihan (D-N.Y.) has proposed to cut Social Security taxes by $55 billion. The New York Times editorial of Jan. 24 calls this scheme "Senator Moynihan's hand grenade."

What makes Moynihan's proposal a "hand grenade" is that it has revealed that the government has been ripping off working people for years and using their money to buy Latin American dictators, protect fraudulent bankers, cut taxes for the rich, and purchase billion-dollar Stealth Bombers.

With public opinion polls indicating growing support for the pro-choice position since the Webster decision, the Republicans are scrambling to dissociate themselves from their longstanding anti-choice platform. Meanwhile, the Democrats are playing up their pro-choice rhetoric and licking their chops at the prospect of a successful 1990 election year.

In other words, the Social Security tax is not used for Social Security but to steadily shift the tax burden to working people. To put it simply: the Social Security tax, which taxes workers at an outrageously higher rate than the rich, has nothing whatever to do with Social Security for anyone but the biggest capitalists!

Moynihan, being the good Democrat that he is, blames the theft of Social Security funds on the Republicans. But the truth is that since the first year of Social Security, the government has been using it to rip off working people in order to cut taxes on the rich.

Every worker knows, when they look at their pay check, that they are paying a continual increase in Social Security tax. In fact, nearly three-quarters of all Americans are paying more in Social Security taxes than they do in income taxes.

"Read my lips?"

The burden of taxation has been shifted from income tax to Social Security tax. This is why Bush can say "Read my lips" as he promises no new income taxes and more cuts in the capital-gains tax and other taxes on the rich. At the same time, Social Security taxes are climbing ever higher!

Surplus revenues from Social Security allows the government to mask the real deficit. For instance, corporate taxes fell by 23 percent since the 1980s, but the share of federal revenue from Social Security taxes rose 23 percent in that same time.

As of Jan. 1, workers and their employers each pay 7.65 percent on payday for Social Security and Medicare. The tax is paid on the first $51,300 of wages. That means that a big business executive, or any other high-roller on salary, pays no Social Security tax on all income above that amount.

Worse yet, all capitalists pay no Social Security tax whatsoever on dividends, profits, and interest. Of course, they will argue that they match the payments made by workers-but that is a legal fiction. The matching payments are really deferred wages.

Crocodile tears

Most of us remember when those who are already retired were threatened with a cut in their Social Security income. The news media portrayed outraged senior citizens as a "greedy and powerful" political force. They cried crocodile tears, claiming that demands for more by our older folks were driving up the Social Security tax on the rest of US.

The fact is that Social Security taxes amount to $65 billion more than what is paid out, this year alone. And by the turn of the century, the surplus ripped off to for new tactics." Folger notes that O.R. has begun organizing "Minuteman" attacks, which is new to the Boston area.

Unsuccessful in their efforts to shut down clinics on Saturdays, small groups of O.R. are now staging surprise blockades on weekdays. These attacks are almost impossible to defend against, as they come without warning and would require a daily pro-choice presence at the clinics. O.R. has also not relented in compensate for steady reductions in taxes paid by the rich will amount to $200 billion.

Most workers believe that Social Security is being saved for them when they retire. Forget that, when it comes time for the rest of us to retire, the mouthpieces of the capitalist class will continue to deceitfully argue that "America can't afford it."

Unfortunately, so long as this country remains in the hands of the capitalists, their economic system will continue to force them to drive living standards lower and lower. Already this government is up to its neck in debt because it must subsidize the capitalists and the profit system as a whole. It is a government in crisis.

The increasing rip-off of the poor and elderly reveals just how deep the crisis of capitalism really is. When The New York Times editors call Senator Moynihan's revelations on Social Security a "hand grenade," they mean that any hint of the truth reaching the ears of the working class will create repercussions for the ruling rich.

Public funding of abortion is still not available in 37 states and minors' access to abortion is being debated by the U.S. Supreme Court this term. The Pennsylvania legislature—spurred by the Webster decision-imposed the strictest restrictions on abortion since 1973. Much work remains to make abortion truly safe, legal and accessible to low income and teen-aged women.

Rather than working to elect so-called pro-choice politicians-

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By 'Ivia Weinstein Weins