Disability Disconnect

Patrick Ruffini takes a breather from analyzing today's election in the UK and notes the state of the opposition to Social Security reform in "Pelosi vs. Reality."

The amount of payroll taxes taken in to fund Social Security's Disability Insurance (DI) program is set by law to be roughly equal to 1.8% of an individual's income. For clarity, this portion of Social Security is completely unaffected by the President's proposed reform of the program, which only affects the remaining portion of the taxes taken in by Social Security to fund Old Age and Survivor's Insurance (OASI) benefits. Just for the record, a brief overview of these taxes and their history is available here at Political Calculations^(TM).

If only Representative Pelosi had been properly informed before issuing her statement. She could have spared herself and her party's members the resulting embarrassment and avoided whatever behind-the-scenes criticism of the effectiveness of her leadership may now be taking place.