Tax compromise — same old story

Last time we looked, the Social Security System was suffering severe cash flow problems. The last thing the system needs is a reduction in income to exacerbate the problem, but that’s what President Obama and the Democrats and Republicans came up with.

A year from now Congress will go back to the table to discuss extending the Social Security cuts another year or even making them permanent. Proponents of extending them will characterize letting them expire as a “tax increase,” just as letting the Bush tax cuts laps had been termed.

Once again, Congress and the president are taking the easy way out. Instead of tackling a worsening deficit that both political parties have acknowledged as a serious problem, our government has decided to try to appease the public anti-tax sentiment by reducing taxes yet again, a move that will only further increase the federal deficit. The fiscal conservatism expressed during the last congressional campaign is already out the window.

President Obama, who opposed extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest, caved in. The Democrats caved. The Republicans, who took back the House in the November elections by campaigning against government spending and the deficit, also caved in with the new Social Security cuts.

Any illusion that government is serious about dealing with the deficit can be put to rest. It’s business as usual in Washington.