OPINION:
Peter Morici’s column, “Social Security reform could become a wealth tax Trojan horse” (Web, Sept. 1), is by far the best column I have seen in your pages regarding Social Security, and it should have been more prominently displayed.
Whereas other columnists have focused on side issues (e.g., so-called Trump Accounts) that in no-way touch upon the pending Social Security shortfall, Mr. Morici’s column was full of factual information that also portrayed how President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the program to be almost untouchable.
Notably, whereas half of elderly Americans were living in poverty in 1933, only 6% do so now. For whatever good the program did during the Depression, we don’t need it anymore.
As an American who has for decades now had 12.4% of my income taken by Social Security taxes, let me state the obvious: Social Security is a bad deal. But having paid into the system all these years, I think Congress should at least uphold its end of the deal.
I am less fearful of losing benefits than seeing this awful program continue to expand, as Democrats are poised to do with the feeble resistance of Republicans who have ceded them the issue.
It’s time to draw the line. To fund promised Social Security benefits, taxes of some form may need to increase. That’s just math.
But Republicans should fight like hell to stop the never-ending expansion of benefits and instead seek to slowly wind down current benefits.
JAMES RYAN
Silver Spring, Maryland
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