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If, as many fear, the budget deal includes cuts to Social Security, I suppose that means money gets diverted from the Social Security trust fund to balance the budget.
The money in the Social Security trust fund comes from a special tax. It is a regressive tax, in that those who earn more than $106K per year pay social security tax only on the first $106K, so the higher your income (beyond $106K) the lower the percent of it you pay in social security tax. Almost everyone who earns money pays it. Self-employed people, like me, pay about 15% of our income to it.
It's bad enough that money that was paid for a specific set of purposes is being diverted to the general budget, which means, in part, to pay for war instead of insuring our retirement.
But then what will happen to the structure of the social security program? Will the tax structure remain the same, with those of lower income paying a higher percentage of their income than those of higher income, now including some contributions to the general budget? That would be hideous, the wealthy getting a free ride on the backs of those of modest income, including some who are really poor.
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