We can stop the social security money problem.

[slater71]

Currently this year, once a worker reaches 132,900 dollars in earnings they do not pay anymore SS taxes. This also favors the rich so why don`t they tax every dollar earned at the current rate. The rich cannot claim you raised their taxes because they pay the same as what everyone does.

[Meadowoak]

1. +1000

[Joe941]

2. Yup. Tax those millionaires!

[mr_lebowski]

3. I believe the idea is that since there's a cap on what Social Security pays out when you retire

there should also be a cap on how much of your income is taxed to pay for it.

It's not an unreasonable argument, and I believe the concept was baked into the program from the very start. There's no chance the system will ever 'tax every dollar earned' as you suggest.

That said, it's not unreasonable to raise the cap in order to make sure the program is self-sustaining, indefinitely.

[stopbush]

10. It's a bullshit argument, because plenty of people pay into SS their entire lives

and die before the draw a cent in SS benefits. Should that money be refunded to their heirs because they never drew a benefit?

95% of Americans are currently taxed “on every dollar earned.” Why are those making over $133,000 a year not taxed on every dollar earned?

Make under $133,000 - taxed on 100% of what you earn

Make $1,330,000 - taxed on 10% of what you earn

Make $1,330,000,000 - taxed on 1% of what you earn

How is that fair?

[spooky3]

4. It does not favor the rich, because they get a much lower

Benefit at retirement relative to their pay.

[Hoyt]

5. That does help, but not as much as some think because benefits

go up too.

And, it is roughly a 12.5 percentage point increase in taxes needed for other things like healthcare, education, jobs, climate change, deficit and debt reduction, etc.

I suspect we will end up with some smaller increase in SS tax, with a compression of benefits, as a short-term solution.

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of simple solutions to our problems.

[Brainfodder]

6. The greedy will angleshoot whatever, and that is the real problem!

CONSEQUENCE the hell out of the worst abusers & plug every loophole is the place to start.

No sugar coating needed.

Need a bullet proofed rewritten Constitution!

[FiveGoodMen]

7. As long as the rich run our government

the government will work only for the rich.

Citizens United was a critical injury as were earlier decisions that amounted to "one dollar, one vote".

Money is not speech. But it sure gets protected!

[lark]

8. That's been my dream financial system fix forever.

I guarantee you all the repugs would vote no and probably some Dems (Schumer & Mancin come to mind) would join them. If would fix our SS troubles forever.

[NewJeffCT]

9. I think they've done analysis of this in the past

It would extend the life of Social Security by a few decades, but it is NOT a permanent solution.

The big problem is that a good part of our $20 trillion national debt is owed to Social Security - much more than we owe China, Japan, Brazil and others. Is Congress & the President going to keep borrowing from the surplus? Sure, the national debt money gets paid back, but we keep borrowing more and more.

[Wounded Bear]

11. The cap should be raised, probably to about $250k or so...

and, the minimum wage should be increased, and tied to inflation so that it goes up as needed. A real problem is that inputs from the bottom have not increased with inflation since the early 90's or so.

These two fixes would help a ton to keep the system solvent.