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Santorum gives Bush political cover

by Prometheus 6
February 28, 2005 - 11:56am.
on Politics

Santorum Puts Rate Hike on Table
The senator says he's willing to discuss a tax increase for Democratic aid on Social Security.
By Joel Havemann
Times Staff Writer
February 28, 2005

WASHINGTON   Sen. Rick Santorum, the conservative from Pennsylvania who ranks third in the Senate Republican leadership, said Sunday that he was willing to discuss increasing the Social Security tax rate as a way of helping to assure the program's solvency.

Santorum said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that raising the Social Security payroll tax might be the price Republicans have to pay for Democratic support for diverting some of the tax revenue to private retirement accounts, as President Bush has proposed.

Santorum's comments on raising the Social Security payroll tax rate come at a time when the public appears to be reacting negatively to Bush's private accounts. In holding out an olive branch to Democrats, Santorum's position went one step further than the president's.

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Submitted by Quaker in a Basement on February 28, 2005 - 8:56pm.

Raise what now?

If the Dems accept a hike in the SS tax rate (not lifting the cap), then I quit.

St. Reagan and his class warriors raised the SS tax rate way back in '83. For more than 20 years, that tax hike has been financing the fiscal excesses of Presidents of both parties. (OK. Clinton gets a pass for '99 and '00.)

Without that tax hike, the gov't would have had to increase the deficit or raise income taxes--especially the upper marginal rate.

So rich folks have been catching a free ride on my nickel for the last 20 years. Now it's time for them to pay back what they borrowed.

But Santorum's solution? Golly, Q in a B, we think you oughta pay the bill--again! Suckah!