Bush Deceptive on Social Security

Your July 28 editorial, “Social Security: Don’t Panic,” accurately spelled out the exaggerations of President Bush’s rigged Social Security commission and pointed out that privatization would damage rather than save the system. But you didn’t go far enough. It’s increasingly clear that Bush is intent on dismantling Social Security. The first move toward that goal was the massive tax cut giveaway to the wealthy. The second step would be raiding the Social Security Trust Fund. The third would be draining hundreds of billions of dollars out of the trust fund for privatization.

Among the many Bush deceptions (on the environment, patients’ rights, energy policy, civil rights, gun control, consumer issues, ad infinitum), his lies and those of his cronies about Social Security are particularly reprehensible, because so many Americans of modest means depend on it for part (in some cases, a major part) of their retirement security.

Michael Briley

Ojai

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Your editorial points out that the members of the president’s commission on Social Security are all pledged to support diverting some payroll taxes to private accounts. This would be voluntary at the rate of up to 2% of sweat income. Don’t they know that we already have such a program in place, taking nothing from the Social Security fund? It is called an individual retirement account.

James Jamieson

Sylmar

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The simplest and fairest alternative to raising Social Security taxes on most of those who already pay more taxes for Social Security than income taxes is to raise the ceiling on those who pay Social Security to such a point as to keep Social Security healthy, and even to such a point where taxes on wages could be lowered for those low-income payers.

Henry Kaplan

Los Angeles