Senator, You seem like a reality based guy. You know full well that Social Security isn’t in danger of becoming insolvent any time soon, and according to the program’s actuaries, “without any changes, Social Security will be able to pay out full benefits until 2033.” But you also have Republican colleagues in the Senate who want to kill the program, and can’t stop yammering about what a threat it is to our well being as a nation. So you need to be in favor of some sort of reform…. Well, check this out.
That’s why you should support Mark Begich’s bill.
The Begich bill would lift the current payroll tax cap, which exempts wages in excess of a certain amount ($110,100 this year) from the tax. In turn, it would give high earners, who would pay more, additional benefits upon retirement, just as benefits increase as wages do for workers below the cap.
According to the Congressional Research Service, a change like that would almost entirely wipe out the program’s long-run actuarial imbalance. Specifically, it would eliminate 95 percent of the shortfall, meaning that a mild increase in the payroll tax rate from 12.4 percent to 12.5 percent would be enough to cover the tiny remaining gap.
Viola! Problem solved. I’ll bet many of your constituents don’t even know that wealthy people pay $0.00 on every dollar earned above $110,000. Think of the hero status you could achieve by simply pointing that inequity out?
And oh yeah, don’t follow Tom Carper and John Carney down the Bowles-SImpson path which
pretends to be reasonable by introducing means-testing, but is really a backdoor plan for cutting benefits.
You are better than that Senator.
UPDATE: I guess I’m a little late warning Senator Coons away from Bowles-SImpson. He is already bragging about making the tough choices to cut benefits through Bowles-SImpson framework. Well… if he is as smart as I think he is, he could always change his mind and wise up about that piece of shit proposal.
