aren t they interrelated, though, because the more people who are in the poverty, below the poverty line will have to be on food stamps. that s correct. it will probably put increased pressure for more people to go on to food stamps because their cash income is so low but there is a distinction here. you got to remember that. if it s cash income poor, that s how we as a country define poor people. cash income. the idea of food stamps, that s totally separate but you re right, gretchen, more people will be claiming food stamps as the number of cash poor people goes up. i think we have a graphic to depict for folks who are watching right now. there s been a war on poverty in this country for a long time. and i believe the graphic starts, all right, this starts in 1970. as you can see, poverty level is about 11% and then in 1993, it hits 15% and now it looks like we re about to eclipse that. the record is 15.3%.
15.3%. it evolved that way. 83. 83. thank you. i love how good you are at remembering details. that s a real good point for you. i ll let you go to other questions. harry truman was the only self-employed president i believe we ve ever had. he put us in that system at 1.5%. it was only the employee s share because he understood what the evolution of employee and employers would be. i would like to go back in time a little bit to some fairness. yeah. the 83 social security reform, i love ronald regan. he got snookerred in the 83 reform because what happened in 83 was he got a bunch of tax increases that tip o neal and greenspan and the folks who this was the greenspan commission. they got a bunch of tax increases immediately, what you were talking about, and the rate went way up. it went up to social security went up to 12.4%.
varney is here to talk about millionaires and apparently they aren t paying their fair share. stop it. that s what it said. it s tax the rich. what this group wants to do is to raise a new tax on millionaires so above the first $1 million they want the state tax to be 13.3%. we have a graphic on the big wall. put it up. and over $2 million, they want 15.3% in tax from the rich. stuart, if you are making that kind of money out in california and something like that comes down the pike, i would move. yes. you would lose and you would move: people are leaving california in droves precisely because of this kind of raising of the taxes. the bottom line is this does not work. you impose this new tax on millionaires, a lot of them leave, and where does the extra money go if indeed you raise some extra money?
and some of the accusations that they made were just flat-out wrong. we are going to document those. all right. so that i understand, i am trying to dig into this. educate me. i understand you can t pick and choose. have you to look at it as a package deal. 9-9-9. you can t say sales tax, 9%, have you to look at the whole package, right. e in correct. now can you do this, though i am trying to understand. i looked at tax brackets. and if you are in the 15% tax bracket, under the 9-9-9, your taxes would go down, income tax would go town by 6% to 9, right? correct. now, remember, we replace the payroll tax, which is 15.3% for everybody. so there is a big pickup right there on that second line. so do you add that second 9, 6% savings on my tax bracket
and some of the accusations that they made were just flat-out wrong. we are going to document those. all right. so that i understand, i am trying to dig into this. educate me. i understand you can t pick and choose. have you to look at it as a package deal. 9-9-9. you can t say sales tax, 9%, have you to look at the whole package, right. e in correct. now can you do this, though i am trying to understand. i looked at tax brackets. and if you are in the 15% tax bracket, under the 9-9-9, your taxes would go down, income tax would go town by 6% to 9, right? correct. now, remember, we replace the payroll tax, which is 15.3% for everybody. so there is a big pickup right there on that second line. so do you add that second 9, 6% savings on my tax bracket