Christie Vilsack Supports Slashing Funding Of Social Security
In an email sent out to supporters last night, congressional candidate Christie Vilsack declared that she supports efforts to reduce the amount of money that goes into the Social Security trust fund. Vilsack explained that reducing the payments that Americans make into Social Security will “provide immediate help to working families and boost consumer spending”.
It is true that reducing payments into the Social Security system (that’s what “payroll tax cuts” really amount to) will enable money to be redirected into consumer spending. Whether it is wise to sacrifice the integrity of the only retirement and disability program many Americans have, for the sake of a temporary boost in consumer spending, is another matter.
There are parts of the federal government’s budget that could provide the same amount of economic stimulus, but do so in a sustainable way, if they were cut. In this category, we can put the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent every year on the failed war in Afghanistan.
It’s short sighted for Christie Vilsack to support a plan that would put Social Security in jeopardy, when better choices that don’t put a burden on senior citizens and disabled Americans, exist.
