|
||||||||
Congressional Corner: Pushing to Repeal the 1993 Social Security Tax By Representative Chris Smith For more than a decade, millions of American retirees who receive Social Security benefits they earned through a lifetime of hard work have been forced to pay an added unfair tax on their monthly benefit. As part of a massive tax increase imposed by President Clinton and by a Democrat-controlled Congress in 1993, a greater portion of middle-class and upper middle-class Social Security recipients were subjected to increased taxation of their benefits. At the time, I vehemently opposed this unfair tax on Social Security income, voted against it and introduced my own legislation (H.R. 3155) to repeal it. Unfortunately, the Democratic leadership in power at the time did not allow my bill to come up for a vote. When control of Congress changed, I voted in 2000 for legislation (H.R. 4865) to repeal the increased Social Security tax, although then-President Clinton threatened to veto the bill, and it never made it out of the Senate. Under the 1993 tax hike, the proportion of Social Security benefits that are subjected to taxation was increased from 50 percent to 85 percent. It was applied to any single beneficiary with income above $34,000; and against all couples earning more than $44,000. Ten years later, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that about 11 million seniors are now affected by the 1993 tax increase. Even though it has been in effect for a decade, this tax on seniors remains patently unfair, and several of us continue to work for its repeal. In this Congress, I am an original co-sponsor of H.R. 434: �The Social Security Benefits Tax Relief Act,� which would repeal the higher taxes and replace those funds which are currently ear-marked for the Medicare trust fund with taxes obtained through the general revenue. This ensures that there is no adverse effect on the Medicare program. Many of us remained frustrated by Congress� inability to succeed in rolling back these unfair taxes. After discussing the issue with seniors at the recent round of One-To-One Meetings in our congressional district, I decided to offer a compromise approach by introducing my own bill, H.R.3868, which would phase out the tax over a five- year period. Let there be no doubt � I believe that this extended tax should be repealed instantly and in full. But with little progress to date on that proposal we might try another approach that may bring some added support to our cause. Because the repeal requires that funds be used from the general treasury (to make up for those now going from the 1993 tax into the Medicare trust fund), my bill would repeal the tax over a five-year period. The phase-in enables us to get started correcting the problem right away in smaller but steady steps towards a complete repeal. It also ensures that the needed budgetary adjustments can be made so that the funds from the general treasury are properly and readily transferred to the Medicare account. The TSCL Board of Trustees and legislative team discussed this, and other issues of concern for seniors and military retirees, at a recent meeting with the Congressman and his legislative director. TSCL supports the repeal of the 1993 Social Security tax, and would like to see Republicans and Democrats work together in the interest of seniors. May 2004 | ||||||||
|
|
||||||||
