Yahoo! News - Bush Open to Talks on Raising Payroll Tax Cap
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (Reuters) - President Bush suggested in an interview published on Wednesday he may be open to raising the cap on Social Security taxes paid by high-income earners, but told a crowd in New Hampshire he would reject an increase in the payroll tax rate.

Bush said he was eager for discussions with lawmakers -- so long as the payroll tax rate, now 12.4 percent split evenly between employees and employers, was off the table -- and would not dictate to them a detailed Social Security proposal.

Separately, in a roundtable with newspapers on Tuesday, Bush showed he was open to talks on a change in the $90,000 limit on the amount of income subject to the tax.

Democrats accused Bush of trying to "trick" them into proposing a tax increase.

"The president wants to trick Democrats into making the tough decisions that he isn't making, but we won't be fooled by this smokescreen," said Sen. Charles Schumer of New York.

Picture of desperation. From the story last Saturday, the quote was-

"I will work with members of Congress and listen to any good idea that does not include raising payroll taxes," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Notice how thats changed to "payroll tax rate" in a few short days.

"The one thing I'm not open-minded about is raising the payroll tax rate, and all the other issues are on the table and that's important for people to know," Bush told the Birmingham News, one of six newspapers in the interview.

No matter. However you cut it, we still can't afford to do this. He can wiggle all he wants, the plan is still just a giveaway to Wall Street that does nothing to address the solvency issue. Keep dancing, George.