I shouldn’t be so surprised, but I am. Carney got the main points right. Social Security isn’t a budget problem, and the long term fix is pretty easy – raise or eliminate the wage cap.
Currently, only the first $113,700 in an individual’s annual wages are taxed to help fund Social Security. By raising or eliminating the payroll cap we can raise hundreds of billions for the Trust Fund and extend the life of the program for nearly 75 more years. To make sure this proposal is fair to people at all income levels, individuals whose wages exceed the current cap could also receive a corresponding increase in benefits.
That’s sounding like a Democrat. (Now if he added that ALL income should be taxed, that would have been mind blowing. So, great… progress. But also backsliding. Get a load of this nonsense:
Bipartisanship is the only way to get things done in a divided Washington. The last time Social Security faced a crisis, Republican President Ronald Reagan and Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill created a bipartisan commission that led to the successful 1983 reform of Social Security. If we’re going to fix Social Security now, we need a bipartisan commission once again, separate from any deficit negotiations.
Carney still thinks there are civic minded Republicans out there somewhere. Poor chap.