Moynihan’s Plan to Cut Payroll Tax

Your editorial “Insecurity in Moynihan’s Plan” (Jan. 21) misses the boat if not the entire lake. Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan’s (D-N.Y.) plan is at most a step in the right direction. The Social Security system needs a complete overhaul not limited to the reduction of the tax rate that is currently needed.

Social Security was never intended as a retirement plan, but Congress has made it one. This has to stop before it consumes the entire budget. At minimum the system should be a pay-as-you-go system so that it does not rob money from the workers of today only to make them dependents of the government tomorrow. The current “surplus” about which you seem so concerned is anything but; it merely serves as another means of funding for government debt. You claim that if the surplus is not maintained, then the workers of the next century will be hit with much higher taxes. However, if we pile up a surplus via government debt, the workers of the next generation will have to pay those off too.

Additionally, Social Security is a burden on lower income groups.

Clearly, by letting today’s workers keep more of their salary and by giving them options other than Social Security they will be better off tomorrow. So let’s all applaud Moynihan’s plan and hope that this is a step on the road to getting the government out of the pension business so that it can afford to take care of those who really need help.

THOMAS K. TSOTSIS

Fullerton