OPINION:
Speaking of discriminatory taxes (“End the growing web of discriminatory taxes,” web, Feb. 15), no one seems to have yet addressed the Medicare tax assessed on Social Security benefits and based solely on income.
Annual notices from Social Security announce the increasing costs. I have a friend who receives a bill instead of a benefits check to cover the difference between the extra Medicare assessment and the amount of the Social Security benefit. With annual increases, it may be only a matter of time before many people get no Social Security check at all — only a bill.
This is particularly galling because the federal government advanced the Federal Employees Retirement System with fully withheld Social Security by proclaiming that Social Security is an integral part of one’s retirement. Before that, the military used the same argument when it began to withhold Social Security taxes from all active-duty military pay.
The creeping Medicare assessment is no less than a discriminatory, nondeductible, unproclaimed tax based on one’s income.
BRUCE WALLENTA
Springfield, Virginia
Please read our comment policy before commenting.