Bernie Sanders Proposes Social Security tax hike for wealthy
Source: International Business Times
17 FEB 2017 AT 16:30 ET
With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed Thursday a perhaps futile attempt to make wealthier Americans pay more into Social Security in order to keep the decades-old program solvent, according to media reports.
The former Democratic presidential candidate, along with Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), explained the plan that would increase benefits for senior citizens by raising taxes on Americans who earn more than $250,000, The Hill reported.
"Anyone who tells you Social Security is going broke is lying, Sanders said. We can increase Social Security benefits for millions of Americans and extend the life of Social Security if we have the political will to tell the wealthiest Americans to pay the same rate as everyone else.
American workers were contributing 6.2 percent of their annual income to Social Security, but thats capped at the first $127,000. Sanders' plan also called for income like capital gains and dividends to be taxed in order to keep the program solvent until 2078.
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/bernie-sanders-proposes-social-security-tax-hike-for-wealthy/
cstanleytech
(26,082 posts)win back the majority then ya it should be done also they should look at raising the draconian cap for earnings for those on disability so they can actually afford to take a part time job and maybe have a decent life because right now they are penalized brutally imo if they try to get a job and if they earn to much they lose the social security check which means they then lose their medical as well.
BainsBane
(53,003 posts)Of course it won't.
cstanleytech
(26,082 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,789 posts)It's not a tRump rally on Wall Street, it's a Republicon rally.
cstanleytech
(26,082 posts)will swing the other way and the Democrats will regain it hopefully sooner rather than later but still it will happen in time.
Judi Lynn
(160,219 posts)tenorly
(2,037 posts)We need to scrap the cap - and apply FICA taxes to investment income as well.
murielm99
(30,657 posts)Hillary Clinton's platform.
Thank you Hillary, for trying.
JudyM
(29,122 posts)He's been covering a lot of ground, that guy.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,752 posts)Read up on the reasons why it was set up that way.. as opposed to a tax or something coming out of the general revenue pot.... and then get back to us.
All the arguments/reasoning used back then are just as valid now.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)and why it is always listed as revenue in the General Fund,,,,,get back with us...... But technically in the GOP spin world , u are correct.
Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,752 posts)OK fine, call it a tax - it is in the generic sense of the word, though by design it was/is intended to something more akin to an insurance premium.
I think you may be confused by the phrase "gen revenue"? It doesnt refer to the entire pot of $$$$ going into federal coffers..........it means tax or other revenue that is collected by govt for general purposes, as opposed to a trust fund or entitlement which is paid into for specific purposes - eg workers comp, Meidcare, FICA, etc.
BTW, "entitlement" is not the bad work repubs make it out to be. It means simply that since you paid into it you are "entitled" to the benefits. As opposed to welfare programs, which must be allocated out of the general funds and is at the mercy of the political whims of the day.
Hate to break it to you but if youre saying SS is, or should be a welfare program coming out of gen funds - THAT is the right winger POV.
Now, to further confuse the issue there has been in recent years smaller amts of $$$ transfered from gen funds into SS trust fund (eg interest on loans taken out of SS funds) but thats a conversation for another day.
The point is - SS needs to be strengthened, not whittled away or defunded by diverting some $$$ to Wall Street or weakened or made into a welfare program.
All I can say is I wish I lived in the alt universe where AL GORE was president and the FICA funds all went into the lock box.
Glamrock
(11,781 posts)This is my reply to anyone claiming we need a flat tax. Let's start with Social Security.
George II
(67,782 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)"American workers were contributing 6.2 percent of their annual income to Social Security, but thats capped at the first $127,000."
Doreen
(11,686 posts)going completely away if this administration has its way.
Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,752 posts)CALL YOUR SENATOR/CONGRESS PEOPLE - every day, local nos & DC numbers.
pLEASE!!!!!!!!
(YES SHOUTING!)
Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,752 posts)to let them shape the message (ie we have to destroy it in order to save it) is too late.
tenorly
(2,037 posts)Nothing else will do. And besides, why should someone with a $50,000 income pay the same as someone with a $1 million income - or worse yet, someone with a $100 million dividend income, who pays nothing at all.
Kashkakat v.2.0
(1,752 posts)If yall have not read this its actually an interesting read. A lot of the arguments then about how to set it up are just as valid today. Quick, before Paul Ryan notices it's there and takes it down!
https://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html