Archive for the ‘Senior Citizens’ tag
It isn’t about social justice
Obama’s promise to eliminate the federal income tax on earning of $50,000 or less for senior citizens has drawn obvious criticism:
If you’re a senior citizen and make less than $50,000 a year, Barack Obama has a deal for you: the rest of your life free of federal income tax.
Sounds appealing, right? Maybe to many seniors. But tax policy experts in Washington are giving it bad reviews. They see it as another subsidy for senior citizens, who already get federal help through Social Security and Medicare and often have economic advantages over other demographic groups.
Seniors typically have paid off their mortgages. Many have investments and usually don’t pay taxes on their Social Security benefits. The kids are usually grown, so they’re not saddled with day care or college costs.
“The odds are the retired folks - they’re getting pensions, they’re getting Social Security, they have investment assets, they own a house - so … they’re better off than somebody who is 30 or 40 years younger who’s trying to buy a house (and) trying to start saving,” said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy for Deloitte Tax.
While the criticism makes sense - economically and morally - it failed to address the main issue on hand. This proposal has nothing to do with social justice, nor with wise tax policy and have everything to do with pandering potential voters. After all older voters votes in higher percentage than younger voters and bribing them, while pretending to care about social justice, is practical. And since Obama didn’t care about social justice, morality or any of those unimportant things, his proposal needs to be evaluated for what it intended to achieve - get the votes.
The question of how to limit the power of senior citizens, or any other large interest group, from robbing the rest of us is completely different topic.
Via tjic