WSJ turns on Republican who harassed poor patients —for a different reason

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) has already aroused controversy for his closeness to President Donald Trump and allegedly harassing poor patients when he was a doctor. Now a conservative newspaper is adding a new controversy to his list — supporting a supposedly "left-wing, tax-and-spend" policy.

"No politician wants to campaign on promises of difficult Social Security reforms," The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote on Thursday. "Even so, the Republican surrender on the old-age entitlement that’s gathering steam is something else. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas is the latest to call for a giant tax increase even without any policy reform."

The Journal added, "Mr. Marshall, the Republican incumbent, is in a tight Senate race with a centrist-presenting Democratic challenger, and Social Security inevitably came up in debate this week. Senators elected this year will be in office when the old-age program’s trust fund runs out in 2032, which will trigger deep benefit cuts if Congress doesn’t reform the program."

"Mr. Marshall—the Republican, remember—came out in favor of what would be one of the largest peacetime tax increases in recent decades. 'I would eliminate the cap altogether' Mr. Marshall said, speaking of the current $184,500 cap on income subject to the payroll tax that funds Social Security. That would amount to a 12.4 percent marginal tax rate increase on workers above that amount—6.2 percent each on workers and their employers. It’d be a punitive tax on work."

Ultimately the Journal came out against these programs by arguing that "eliminating the cap wouldn’t come close to filling the entitlement’s funding gap. And that’s before accounting for the damage to the economy from pushing effective marginal income-tax rates on millions of earners above 60 percent in some states."

The Journal concluded that "this is a political mistake for the ages because this debate is bigger than Social Security. In its impact on the federal budget and consequences for economic growth, Social Security reform may be the most important policy this year’s class of Senators will debate during their term. Why vote for Republicans if all you’ll get is left-wing, tax-and-spend economic policies masquerading as right-wing populism?"

Speaking to AlterNet earlier this month, former President Joe Biden's Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley argued against the Journal's position.

"I actually think as people come to understand the solution and what’s at stake as that cliff gets closer and closer, I think you’re going to find broad public support for requiring that the wealthiest of Americans pay the same Social Security tax rate that all of the rest of us do," O'Malley told AlterNet at the time.

In addition to siding against many Republicans on Social Security reform, Marshall is controversial for reportedly being aggressive in getting medical debts repaid from patients who claimed they were too poor to afford them. He did this at a time when he was still a practicing doctor, but was quite affluent, and experts agreed that it was unusual for him to go as far as he did — including seeking arrests in 81 cases. Marshall has also been protested for his role in squashing the publication of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Trump is accused of engaging in sex crimes, including allegedly with children, while associating with Epstein during their decades-long friendship.

from Alternet.org https://ift.tt/8e4vg92
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