Tax Foundation

"Privatizing Social Security is too risky," warn critics of reforming the retirement program. "You just can't trust the stock market. " But that seriously misstates the risks of both privatization and Social Security. With the release this month of a report by the Social Security Advisory Council, the debate has been joined. Many, considering the system precarious, want to privatize Social Security, allowing younger workers to divert all or part of their payroll taxes to individually owned, privately invested accounts similar to individual retirement accounts or 401(k)

Gary Hart has one. So do Jack Kemp, Bruce Babbitt and the Rev. Marion G. "Pat" Robertson. All are seriously dipping their toes into the slowly rising waters of 1988 presidential politics, and all latched onto the same kind of water wings to keep them afloat - they created tax-exempt foundation "think tanks" to help get them started. Sen. Hart (D., Colo.) calls his the Center for a New Democracy. It claims to be a "national clearinghouse of new and innovative solutions to the challenges of changing America.

The Tax Foundation in Washington made it official last week: If you work a normal eight-hour day, the first two hours and 43 minutes of your day are spent just earning enough to pay your federal, state and local taxes. That's right, your Uncle Sam in Washington, Uncle Bob (Casey) in Harrisburg and Uncle Wilson (Goode) at City Hall take the first 33 cents out of every dollar you earn. Given these facts, it is hardly surprising that Philadelphians have sent the message loud and clear to the mayor: No new taxes.

Congratulations. You probably have just made your largest "purchases" of the year. According to the Tax Foundation, a private research organization, the median family of four paid $4,722 in federal taxes last year. When you signed that check to the Internal Revenue Service last week, your share of federal revenues allowed Uncle Sam to subsidize one of the following up to the sum of $4,722: One advertisement by the United States Postal Service praising itself for providing the best mail service in the world.

Gov. Rendell's plan to create a separate income tax on oil companies would result in a $700 million tax hike on Pennsylvanians. The proposal, essentially a "windfall profits tax," is a brilliant political move since it targets "Big Oil" - everyone's favorite whipping boy - and hides the cost that individuals will ultimately pay. But though the politics are right, the economic consequences of the proposal couldn't be more wrong for Pennsylvania....

Rendell should flex muscles in other ways I think Gov. Rendell should close the PATCO line to Philadelphia in order to blackmail New Jersey into knuckling under and allowing the dredging of the Delaware, making a deeper, if questionable, ship channel. I'm sure those thousands of extra cars in the city will be a welcome addition to the gridlock. And while the governor is at it, maybe he can stop some other things. For example, the guns that are purchased in the firearm convenience store that is Philadelphia and brought into Camden.

Richard R. Miller, a former State Department counselor, was charged today with conspiring with conservative fund-raiser Carl R. "Spitz" Channell to raise money illegally to buy weapons for the contras in Nicaragua. The legal action by Lawrence E. Walsh, the special prosecutor in the Iran-contra affair, overshadowed the second day of congressional hearings into the scandal. Miller, 34, the head of International Business Communications, a Washington public relations firm, was charged in a one-count criminal information with conspiracy to defraud the federal government.

Much has been made lately of the fact that New Jersey has 566 cities, townships, and boroughs, some so small a census worker could knock one off in an afternoon. But New Jersey wasn't always a checkerboard of communities. In 1872, for instance, Camden County was made up of eight townships and two cities. Today it has 37 individual municipalities. The vast number of municipalities and school districts has become a hot topic for budget-conscious politicians, who see possible savings in eliminating some of the bureaucracy.

THE MACARENA was ranked "The No. 1 Greatest One-Hit Wonder of All Time" by VH1. The Spanish dance song by Los del Rio became a big international hit in 1995 and 1996. And then it was old. After 100 listens, Los del Rio needed something new. It didn't come and they were gone. I wonder if the same thing is going to happen after hearing President Obama say 100 times that "the rich" aren't paying enough taxes and that everyone else is being economically exploited. The line appeared to sound good to a lot of people the first few times.

Taxes hold a special place among Pennsylvanians - right along with potholes, power outages, and poison ivy. So when Gov. Rendell proposed a temporary 16 percent hike, from 3.07 to 3.57 percent, amid the current budget crisis, he stressed the positive: Pennsylvania has one of the lowest income tax rates in the nation. That is accurate. But while the wage levy is the commonwealth's biggest tax source, it represents only about 30 percent of state and local taxes collected in Pennsylvania, according to government figures.