White House makes major Soc. Security shift
3/2/2005
White House makes major Soc. Security shift
This just in from the paid-restricted CQ.com, a service of the National Journal. By Alex Wayne: excerpted.
Treasury Secretary John W. Snow indicated Wednesday that the White House would accept a Social Security overhaul that does not divert the program’s payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts, a major shift in the administration’s position.
He and a Treasury Department spokesman, Robert S. Nichols, reiterated that personal accounts must be part of any legislation, but said that would not necessarily require the diversion of payroll taxes to fund the accounts.
“My preference would be for the sort of proposal we’ve put forward,” Snow said. “On the other hand, we’re prepared to engage people.”
While he said the administration supports making the tax cuts passed since 2001 permanent, he said he would not rule out any specific source of funding for the accounts.
“We are open to good ideas,” he said. “I don’t want to close off ideas; I don’t want to close off debate.”
Accounts funded from a source other than the 12. 4 percent Social Security payroll tax might draw some Democratic support, but it is unclear how the government would pay for such a system. That proposal would likely also turn off many conservative Republicans who see diverting Social Security’s payroll taxes into personal accounts as a way to both decrease the government’s obligation to future retirees and reduce the government’s reliance on payroll taxes as a revenue source to fund other programs.
Administration officials will today launch what Snow described as a 60-day “blitz” to publicize its Social Security proposal.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=141
White House makes major Soc. Security shift
This just in from the paid-restricted CQ.com, a service of the National Journal. By Alex Wayne: excerpted.
Treasury Secretary John W. Snow indicated Wednesday that the White House would accept a Social Security overhaul that does not divert the program’s payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts, a major shift in the administration’s position.
He and a Treasury Department spokesman, Robert S. Nichols, reiterated that personal accounts must be part of any legislation, but said that would not necessarily require the diversion of payroll taxes to fund the accounts.
“My preference would be for the sort of proposal we’ve put forward,” Snow said. “On the other hand, we’re prepared to engage people.”
While he said the administration supports making the tax cuts passed since 2001 permanent, he said he would not rule out any specific source of funding for the accounts.
“We are open to good ideas,” he said. “I don’t want to close off ideas; I don’t want to close off debate.”
Accounts funded from a source other than the 12. 4 percent Social Security payroll tax might draw some Democratic support, but it is unclear how the government would pay for such a system. That proposal would likely also turn off many conservative Republicans who see diverting Social Security’s payroll taxes into personal accounts as a way to both decrease the government’s obligation to future retirees and reduce the government’s reliance on payroll taxes as a revenue source to fund other programs.
Administration officials will today launch what Snow described as a 60-day “blitz” to publicize its Social Security proposal.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=141
posted by JimG at 11:24 AM
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