The Washington Post

September 09, 2001, Sunday, Final Edition

SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. B06

Burdening the Poor

The Post missed a fairly important point in the Aug. 29 editorial "A Surplus of Posturing." Why should Social Security taxes be used to pay for programs for which there are insufficient funds from income taxes? Why should the most regressive of taxes be used to pay for farm programs, road building, water projects? Why should those who didn't earn enough to pay income taxes (and therefore received no "refund") be financing programs when the richest people in this country are receiving money back from our government? If we believe that we are taxing the citizenry too much, surely that burden isn't from the income tax, which is insufficient to meet our increasing needs in education, defense, etc., but rather from the regressive Social Security tax, which unfairly takes from the lowest-wage earners. To suggest that "it doesn't matter whether the budget has saved the entire Social Security surplus" is to miss the point about who should pay for our programs and what portion we should expect the working poor to carry on behalf of everyone else.

DEBORAH E. McFARLAND

Washington