Gilbert E. Metcalf writes about the Social Security shell game in a Boston Globe op-ed. I view Alan Greenspan’s suggestion that we handle the current deficit problem by cutting Social Security benefits now that I read that he was responsible for raising the payroll tax to cover those same benefits 20 years ago. Many people suggested that if Bush wanted to give people some of their money back and goose the economy, he could cut the payroll tax instead of cutting things like the estate tax, but that suggestion was ignored. That would have made the most sense given that any surpluses the government has shown have come from the payroll tax side of things, but that’s not the direction we went. Now we’re going to be stuck paying the same high payroll tax (which is incredibly regressive), and the powers that be are going to cut the benefits that are paid out. This is highway robbery.