On and Off

Pension progress, job troubles

It had taken the House two years of acrimonious debate to bring the contentious question to heel. But when legislation proposed by an unusual blue-ribbon panel to save the financially troubled Social Security system finally reached the floor last week, the vast package barreled through to bipartisan approval, 282 to 148. Passage of the bill, said Minority Leader Robert H. Michel, was "born of necessity and ripened of bipartisan deliberation."

Only two equally unpalatable solutions were possible: increase the taxes that fund the system or reduce benefits. In the end the House followed the recommendation of the National Commission on Social Security Reform and voted for both. The bill it passed would speed up increases in Social Security taxes, while making modest reductions in benefits, including taxation of some benefits for people with high (more than $25,000) income. It would also mandate inclusion of new Government employees, who begin working after Jan. 1, 1984, in the program. Until now the federal work force has had its own insurance system. And it would raise the retirement age gradually from the current 65 to 67 by the year 2027.

If the House package becomes law, the Social Security system will be buoyed by revenue increases and spending cuts totaling $165.3 billion from 1983 to 1989. The legislation now moves for approval to the Senate, where Colorado Republican William Armstrong has promised stiff opposition to the proposed tax hikes and levies on benefits.

Just how easily popular legislation can become untracked was demonstrated last week by an unedifying battle over the $4.9 billion jobs bill, which was passed by the House two weeks ago. Instead of sailing through the Senate as expected, it has been held up by an amendment supported by the powerful banking lobby and tacked on by Republican Senator Robert W. Kasten of Wisconsin. The amendment would bar the withholding of taxes on dividends and interest by banks, as required by President Reagan's 1982 tax package. Fearing that Kasten's idea has considerable support, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Robert Dole launched what amounted to a filibuster against passage. Said Dole: "I do not understand why people should not pay their taxes. If we do not want people to pay taxes, let us repeal the income tax." Dole has a powerful ally in the White House. Said Reagan last Friday: "I'm deeply disturbed that the jobs bill will suddenly become a Christmas tree for special-interest legislation. I think that the banking industry would do a lot better to spend its time thinking about lowering interest rates than lobbying the way they are. I would veto such legislation." - This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.