Large Tax Increase Not Newsy Enough
for Media
Major outlets ignore Democratic
Congressmans Social Security proposal that would raise the payroll
tax.
The major media have largely ignored a
Democratic tax increase proposal launched this week that would place
new tax burdens on workers and employers. NBC, CBS, The New York
Times and The Washington Post ignored or glossed over the first
Social Security plan from a Democrat, who declared that raising the
payroll tax would bail out the system.
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) came forward on May 16,
2005, with his plan to fix Social Securitys shortfall by raising
payroll taxes. NBC and CBS completely ignored the development. The
New York Times and washingtonpost.com gave Wexler a nod with an
Associated Press story about his bill, though they didnt bother to
cover the proposal themselves.
The focus of most of the remaining media, including Fox
News Special Report with Brit Hume, ABCs World News Tonight,
CNNs Inside Politics and The Washington Times, has been the
political ramifications of Wexlers breaking ranks with his party
leadership. These media, however, were up front about the contents
of the proposal adding a 6 percent tax to income above $90,000,
the current cap on the payroll taxs reach.
Though The Washington Times headline was the
misleading Wexler offers proposal to fix Social Security, reporter
Amy Fagan was clear that the fix was a tax increase.
Wexlers bill would raise taxes to address the $11
trillion shortfall the Social Security Administration estimates the
system faces in the future. But, as The Heritage Foundations Rea
Hederman noted in a critique of Wexlers bill, a study by the SSA
showed that eliminating the wage cap on payroll taxes while paying
benefits on only earnings below the wage cap would delay the start
of Social Securitys annual deficits from 2018 to 2025just seven
years.
Media reports on the issue did not explore the details
of whether Wexlers proposal would solve Social Securitys problems,
nor did they look into the impact such a sizeable tax increase would
have on workers and employers. Because Wexler acted without his
partys backing, the political questions overshadowed the economic
ones.
