Wealth & Money Quote by Rob Simmons

A neat piece of moral framing disguised as tax policy. Rob Simmons isn’t just arguing that a 1993 Social Security tax is inefficient; he’s casting it as a violation of the retirement bargain. The key move is the verb "penalizes", which turns taxation from a collective obligation into a punishment aimed at virtue. By bundling "savings, investment and hard work" into a single breathless trio, he puts retirees into a culturally sympathetic category: people who did everything right. If they’re being hit with a "double tax", the government isn’t managing a system, it’s breaking a promise.

The subtext is a familiar partisan story about who deserves public support. Seniors are framed not as beneficiaries of a social insurance program but as disciplined individual planners whose independence should exempt them from added burdens. That elevates a certain kind of retiree - the saver, the investor - while quietly sidelining those who relied more heavily on the program because wages were low, jobs were unstable, or savings weren’t possible. "That’s wrong" is doing heavy lifting here: it’s a moral gavel meant to end debate before it starts.

Context matters: the 1993 law (often associated with higher taxation of Social Security benefits for some recipients) has long been a conservative target because it can be sold as both tax relief and respect for elders. Calling it a "double tax" is rhetorically potent, even if the underlying policy details are more technical than the phrase admits. The line is built to travel: outrage, dignity, and a clear villain, packaged for a campaign stop.