Social Security and Payroll Taxes

3 February 2005

Dear Mr. President:

I am a supporter of the personal accounts proposal and would like to see it instituted in a fiscally responsible manner.

I beleive that your refusal to look at raising payroll taxes is a mistake. I disagree with your point that we would be "undermining economic strength by raising payroll taxes." I think it undermines our eceonmic strength far more if we go further into debt as a nation. Borrowing is one option I cannot accept for financing the trasition costs of instituting a personal account proposal. Raising the payroll tax may hurt our economic growth in a small way, but allowing the debt to grow does more harm. I am sure businesses would agree that one does not thrive when they have debts that are too large. This would apply to a country as well. We are borrowing large amounts of money from China and Japan. This is not good because China manipulates its currency and makes the dollar weaker. In light of this I support raising the payroll tax to fund the transition to personal accounts.

The debt we have incurred hurts us far more than raising payroll taxes would. The tax increase could be looked at somewhere down the line and be cut. I beleive the idea was for it to be in effect for 15 years or until the system is deemed solvent. This seems like an ok idea.

I am in the generation you are trying help with this proposal as I am 25 years of age. I consider reducing the debt far more important than lower taxes. We cannot afford to borrow to fund this proposal because we are at war adn that is going to cost us at least $80 billion this year. I support the war, but I also want lower debts and deficits. How can we acchieve if we keep on borrowing to pay for policies? I do not see a way. Please reconsider.