On Wed, 23 Jun 2010, Doug Henwood wrote:
>> Ergo dogging the Trust Fund is unhelpful.
>
> So let's lie about it instead?
Isn't it possible to cast it in terms of outrage? If the borrowing of money from the SS fund was a massive fraud that stole from the poor and gave to the rich and didn't create one dime of security for our pensions -- which it was -- isn't it worth making a big issue about? I think that's what Krugman is essentially saying -- that these are real obligations, even if it isn't real money. And if they are defaulted on, it's a real breach of trust. And if it was all a fraud in the past, then there is no reason in hell to continue with this fiction of payroll taxes and their income cap in the future which would just perpetuate the same fraud.
In short, if we accept that it was all a fake, the first step should be to remove the income cap on payroll taxes, which is necessarily follows is just as fake. And presto, problem solved.
Michael