WH says NO wage cap increase - and hints at flexibility on wage cap increa

Yesterday "The president said he was open to any solutions 'except for running up payroll taxes,' and the White House said he would also reject raising the ceiling on income that can be taxed to finance Social Security, a limit currently set at $90,000."

Meanwhile ABC News' John Cochran reported last night on World News Tonight that raising the income subject to taxation was off the table for now, but White House officials hinted that they might be flexible in the future.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/11/politics/11bush.html

February 11, 2005
Bush Takes Social Security to 2 'Town Halls'
By DAVID E. SANGER

LUE BELL, Pa., Feb. 10 - President Bush argued Thursday that unless major changes were made to Social Security, future benefits would be cut, payroll taxes would rise drastically or the country would incur "massive debt" to save the system.

But at stops in North Carolina and in this Philadelphia suburb, Mr. Bush steered clear of discussing the price tag of creating the personal accounts he advocates, which Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday could cost trillions of dollars in coming decades.

The president said he was open to any solutions "except for running up payroll taxes," and the White House said he would also reject raising the ceiling on income that can be taxed to finance Social Security, a limit currently set at $90,000.

Mr. Bush appeared to acknowledge that he was facing an uphill fight, saying the effort to overhaul the system would be "an interesting experience in dealing with the Congress." And while he repeated several times that he was open to ideas, he rejected some that were advocated in Washington on Wednesday by the chief executive of AARP, William D. Novelli, who said raising the income cap on Social Security taxes to $140,000 would nearly halve the shortfall foreseen in the current system by 2042, the year insolvency is projected.
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