Eileen McNally: Every Business in North Dakota

To the Editor:
So, John Hoeven’s spokesman doesn’t like the idea of multi-millionaires paying at the same payroll tax rate into Social Security as some kid flipping burgers for $8 an hour.  He wants the kid to pay at a much higher rate. He doesn’t want to lower payroll taxes for the 94% who make less than $106,000 per year.

That’s taking one for the team. Hoeven’s campaign manager, presumably, makes less than that. He’d see a tax break and a secure future with Social Security fixed forever by Tracy Potter’s proposal, yet he’s against it. I wonder why.

I suppose it could be because his boss is a multi-millionaire.

Sen. Potter’s proposal is so simple and direct that people I’ve talked to about it are surprised that it isn’t already the law. They can’t believe that everyone making $1,000, or $50,000, or $100,000, pays 6.2% in payroll tax, but someone making a million pays 0.62%, or someone making $100 million pays .0062% of their salary to support Social Security.

The thing I really like about it, other than fixing Social Security, is that it would lower payroll taxes for every business that pays less than $106,000 average per worker.

That’s every business in North Dakota.

-Eileen McNalley
Bismarck