Would Reducing Medicare/SS benefits be a tax increase?

[NYcarbineer]

If you pay X amount in payroll taxes, and are entitled to receive, at some point Y in benefits,

then over the long haul, on balance, X minus Y represents your net tax burden for SS and Medicare.

If, however, Y is reduced, and you continue to pay X, then on balance your net tax burden has gone up.

I'm applying a little Grover Norquist logic here, so don't beat up on him too badly, cons. He's YOUR BFF.

 

[Sallow]

Starve the beast!!

 

[NYcarbineer]

According to Grover Norquist, who owns almost every Republican in Congress,

if you lose a tax credit, that's a tax increase.

If I lost a year off my eligibility for Social Security, because they raised the retirement age,

that's a tax increase. If the monthly benefit is cut, that's a tax increase, because you paid in the same, but you get less back.

If Medicare is means tested further so that your income determines your benefits,

and you lose Medicare benefits because of it, that's a tax increase.

Oh, and Paul Ryan's plan would be a HUGE tax increase, assuming you still paid the same payroll tax.

 

[8537]

Grover Norquist claims that cutting oil and ethanol subsidies is a tax increase.

I guess all those Republican proposals to cut food stamps, TANF etc...are actually tax hikes. Why do Republicans want to increase taxes?

 

[bripat9643]

If you pay X amount in payroll taxes, and are entitled to receive, at some point Y in benefits,

then over the long haul, on balance, X minus Y represents your net tax burden for SS and Medicare.

If, however, Y is reduced, and you continue to pay X, then on balance your net tax burden has gone up.

I'm applying a little Grover Norquist logic here, so don't beat up on him too badly, cons. He's YOUR BFF.

Short answer: no.

Taxes and benefits are two separate things. You are not "entitled" to receive anything. Not in the ethical sense, nor in the legal sense.

Only an imbecile would try to argue otherwise

 

[Sallow]

If you pay X amount in payroll taxes, and are entitled to receive, at some point Y in benefits,

then over the long haul, on balance, X minus Y represents your net tax burden for SS and Medicare.

If, however, Y is reduced, and you continue to pay X, then on balance your net tax burden has gone up.

I'm applying a little Grover Norquist logic here, so don't beat up on him too badly, cons. He's YOUR BFF.

Short answer: no.

Taxes and benefits are two separate things. You are not "entitled" to receive anything. Not in the ethical sense, nor in the legal sense.

Only an imbecile would try to argue otherwise

Cool.

Then we can start cutting all the contracts to private industries..and compell the government to do without stuff like missiles and ships.

Only way to be sure.

 

[bripat9643]

Grover Norquist claims that cutting oil and ethanol subsidies is a tax increase.

He probably said removing tax breaks for oil and ethanol would be a tax increase, and he's right. That would increase the taxes that producers of these resources pay. A subsidy is when the government pays you, not when what you owe is reduced.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

If you pay X amount in payroll taxes, and are entitled to receive, at some point Y in benefits,

then over the long haul, on balance, X minus Y represents your net tax burden for SS and Medicare.

If, however, Y is reduced, and you continue to pay X, then on balance your net tax burden has gone up.

I'm applying a little Grover Norquist logic here, so don't beat up on him too badly, cons. He's YOUR BFF.

I hear the Republicans want to subtract 5 years from everyone's age too!

 

[8537]

Grover Norquist claims that cutting oil and ethanol subsidies is a tax increase.

He probably said removing tax breaks for oil and ethanol would be a tax increase, and he's right. That would increase the taxes that producers of these resources pay. A subsidy is when the government pays you, not when what you owe is reduced.

Removing a subsidy is a tax hike? This is the new Republican mantra. Please sing it from the hills.

hint: the government pays ethanol producers 50 cents per gallon. Please make a note of it.

They also pay an amount per barrel for oil extracted from nontraditional sources such as shale.

 

[percysunshine]

I hear the Republicans want to subtract 5 years from everyone's age too!

Only the women. And liberal women want to subtract 30.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Booosh said he might not be able t0o send Soc Security checks! He wants people to die die die die