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PRESS RELEASE FROM AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM
Contact: John Kartch ( jkartch@atr.org or 202-785-0266)

[View Printable Adobe Acrobat File]

6/3/05

Social Security Fact of the Day
Social Security cannot afford to pay all of the benefits it has promised. Beginning in 2017, it will run cash deficits that get bigger every year.

There aren’t many choices to fix Social Security when personal accounts are taken off the table. Raising taxes and cutting benefits is all you have left. One tempting target of tax increasers is lift the wage cap at which Social Security taxes are applied. Few have pointed out, though, that this would be a massive tax increase on families that choose to have a stay-at-home Mom. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) recently proposed raising the wage cap from $90,000 to $160,000. For a dual-earner couple each earning $80,000 per year, this would not increase taxes at all. However, an identically-earning family with only one spouse working would see their Social Security taxes increase by a whopping 78%! Tax increases are not the answer—PRAs are.

Social Security has a problem, and we need to fix it. Personal accounts are the solution.

Lindsey Graham’s Social Security Tax Increase: A Killer to Stay-at-Home Moms
Source: Washington Post April 1, 2005

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Americans for Tax Reform is a non-partisan coalition of taxpayers and taxpayer groups who oppose any and all federal and state tax increases.  For more information, or to arrange an interview with Mr. Norquist please contact John Kartch at (202)785-0266 or by email at jkartch@atr.org.