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The Peter Principles: Thinking Like A Majority
By Peter Roff
March 2, 2005
Page 2 of 2
It is certainly possible the president has the idea in mind that 4-percent accounts represent a floor rather than a ceiling. A creative explanation would identify the ongoing debate as an effort to get the camel's nose under the tent.
Once a majority of Congress accepts in principle the idea of personal retirement accounts -- something all but one or two Senate Democrats seem constitutionally incapable of doing now -- it will be, in relative terms, easy to design them.
That is an example of thinking like a majority. On the other side is Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who, along with a few others, is engaged in pre-emptive negotiations with Senate Democrats that started with a concession that some major tax increase is the price of winning their support to overcome a filibuster.
This is minority thinking, driven by the sense that the GOP gets one and only one chance to fix the system.
This has led to what for the GOP is a foolish discussion about eliminating the cap on wages subject to the Social Security tax. The president, to the consternation of his allies, has refused to rule the idea out.
Yet there is a creative, majority-minded way to get around this problem as well. Simply removing the cap constitutes an increase in the payroll tax. One might even be able, through some creative juggling of the numbers, to show why it is an effective increase in the rate. In any event, Bush could say this approach violates his four principles.
What he could accept, and it's an idea the Republicans should pursue, is removing the cap in a way that is revenue neutral. And the only way to do that would be to reduce the overall rate on both the employer and employee portions of the tax. This would give those often referred to as the working poor -- the same people Democrats complain have been left out of Bush's previous tax cuts -- a major tax cut. They would not only be getting a shot at a secure and safe retirement -- they would get a tax cut too.
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The Peter Principles explores issues in national and local politics, U.S. culture and the media. It is written by Peter Roff, UPI political analyst and 20-year veteran of the Washington scene.
Copyright © 2001-2005 United Press International
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA. >> Back -- Page 1 2
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