Political Quotes

“I want to show this chart of what government has done historically every time Social Security has less money than what is needed to pay benefits, and it is a pay-as-you-go program. It is deducted from the paycheck at the end of the 1 week or the 2 weeks or the month, and within days it is sent out to beneficiaries. So there is no savings account with one's name on it. So we have run into problems of not having enough money in Social Security to pay benefits on several occasions, but what we have done historically, and I use this because I think it is a danger of what can happen in the future, is simply that we have increased taxes and reduced benefits. This is a chart that shows the increase in taxes. In 1940, we had 2 percent of the first 3,000. By 1960, it went up to 6 percent of the first 4,800. By 1980, 10 percent-plus of the first 26,000. In 2000, 12.4 percent of the first 76,200. And currently it is not a rate increase, but it is a base increase; so it is the same 12.4 percent on the new base of $89,000 a year. So continually we have continued to increase taxes on working Americans to the extent that most working Americans now pay more in the Social Security tax than they do in the income tax.”