Do you see that tax taken out of your paycheck? Double it

Robert Samuelson warns that raising taxes to meet entitlement demands could suppress economic growth, leading to lower tax revenues, leading to higher tax rates to meet entitlement demands, etc. etc. etc., in “Economic Death Spiral”

Consequently, baby boomers' children and grandchildren face massive tax increases. Social Security and Medicare spending now equals 14 percent of wage and salary income, reports Bell. By 2030, using the trustees' various projections, that jumps to 26 percent. Of course, payroll taxes don't cover all the costs of Social Security and Medicare. Still, these figures provide a crude indicator of the economic burden, because costs are imposed heavily on workers via some tax (including the income tax), government borrowing (a.k.a. the deficit) and cuts in other government programs.

As Samuelson and others have flatly stated, benefits must be cut. If payroll taxes are not increased, the government will be forced into widespread borrowing that will be subsequently funded by income taxes. A tax by any other name would still cut as deep.