There’s an email going around saying that President Obama’s finance team wants to tax direct deposited Social Security checks at 1% and that’s why everyone will be required to direct deposit their check starting in 2013. The bottom line with this is—it’s a bunch of horse hockey. (I like to keep my blog at a G rating.)

 

Let’s start with some background on the issue. It’s actually a recirculation of an old email from 2010 when the bill was originally introduced by a congressman named Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania. He originally proposed this legislation with the name “Debt Free America Act” which was his plan to eliminate the national debt. (Back then the national debt was around $10 trillion as compared with today’s almost $16 trillion.) Here’s a link to his post about the bill which is dated April 15, 2010: http://fattah.house.gov/latest-news/fattah-my-bill-erases-the-national-debt-and-abolishes-april-15-as-personal-income-tax-day/

 

There are two really important things to know about this bill:

 

1. This is not an Obama Administration bill. It wasn’t a Bush bill either. Now, I’m making a guess but I think I’m pretty safe in saying that Romney would never support this bill either.

 

2. The bill already died a quiet death in committee. There was never even a floor vote. Nobody supported this bill except for Mr. Fattah.

 

So why am I writing a blog in 2012 about a phony email that started in 2010? Because the email is still going around! I just got it last week. And when somebody sends me an email about taxes I check it out.

 

So what else do I know about this bill? Well, Mr. Fattah re-proposed his bill in March of 2011 as HR1125. Once again, it went to committee the same day and nothing has happened since. There are no cosponsors to this bill. Not Tom Harkin, not Peter Defazio, not Nancy Pelosi; nobody.

 

If you still want more information, check out the Snopes.com article debunking it: http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/debtfree.asp

 

So folks, your Social Security checks are safe. If you get this in your email box, just delete it because it’s not true.