to hint that I might be displeased by his liking George Will’s column on raising taxes as part of Social Security reform. I liked it, too. I wouldn’t oppose a modest tax increase as part of a package that, overall, cuts taxes, and I take personal accounts to be a kind of tax cut. But a few cautions are in order.

I take it that what Will has in mind is an increase in the payroll tax cap that causes people in a certain income range–he mentions the $90,000-$162,000 range–to pay an additional 12.4 percent tax on each dollar earned. (I’m counting the employer’s share since it comes out of wages.) And I assume that Will would alter the rules so that the additional contributions do not result in additional benefits from Social Security. The whole point is to bring money into the system.

Caution number one is that this proposal is not a modest tax increase. When was the last time any president, Democrat or Republican, imposed a 12.4 percent marginal tax hike on any group of people? I think you’d have to go back at least 25 years.

Caution number two is that Will’s calculation may turn out to be optimistic. “The tax increase from lifting the cap to $162,000 would be paid mostly by Republicans — but also by the people most able to put substantial sums into the personal accounts that might become politically feasible only by raising the cap.” That assumes that there’s no limit on how much people can put in their accounts–and several proposals want to keep high-income people from investing “too much.” It’s highly unlikely they would come out ahead under Will’s proposal.

If a modest tax hike buys enough Democrats to get a basically good bill through, it’s worth it, and I’m glad to see Will thinking in this way. But I think the tax increase would have to be much smaller than the one Will suggests.