Support House and Senate bills to eliminate income cap

[vtaylor94903]

There are now bills in bother the House and the Senate to finally do the sensible thing and eliminate the income cap on paying SS taxes. 

The Social Security 2100 Act calls for some benefit increases that would be in effect through 2036. Among those proposed changes are an across-the-board benefit increase, a change to how the annual cost-of-living adjustment is calculated, and an increase in the minimum benefit for long-term low earners.

To pay for those changes, the bill calls for eliminating the Social Security payroll tax cap and taxing investment income for taxpayers who earn over $400,000. In 2026, the Social Security payroll tax cap is set at $184,500.

Earnings above that limit are not subject to the 6.2% payroll tax for workers and employers.

I want to see AARP throw their full weight behind these bills. Also, if you care about this issue, contact your Representative and your Senators and tell them you want them to support these bills. 
We finally have an opportunity to fix SS as it should have been fixed decades ago. 

[GailL1]

REALLY - you want people to support this bill - why?  You do know that we are not just fixing this broken system just for those that are already retired or will be in the next few years - it is for the multitudes that have been paying into the system for may years and for those that are just getting started - the fix is suppose to be for 75 years. 

Tell me why you think it is so great?

This is a very old bill 1st introduced by Rep John Larson in 2021 or 2022 - then resubmitted in the previous Congress (2023 - 2024) and it has gotten no where.

Guess some have dusted it off and changed a few words and now it is back around for them to play around with - just in time for the midterms which is about the time that some want to talk about it.  Promising the voters - MORE something.  That is their job security - promising and then it doesn’t work.  Because they never take the time to create a plan from compromise and negotiations.  

They can’t even agree on how to even discuss it.- I watched the Senate hearing on iSocial Security last week on CSpan - I posted the link to it on this board - I am sure every body scurried over to watch it.  It was very interesting - in fact one of the AARP executors was there as one of the “experts”.  Here is the link to my post so you can hear what the AARP exec had to say about the process of regular order - IMO, that is so lobbyist can be in full force.  Lobbyist are regular order.  If you don’t know what I am talking about - listen / watch the hearings.  The AARP exec that was in attendance at this Senate hearing was:

Nancy LeaMond  AARP Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer

AARP Social Security Discussion Board 08/08/2026 - Social Security Solvency - Senate Finance Committ... 

Per your post “Earnings above that limit are not subject to the 6.2% payroll tax for workers and employers.”    THE CAP ON EARNINGS HAS A PURPOSE.  IT LIMITS THE BENEFITS - This s what many want to eliminate - Raise the cap and benefits are also raised - for this reason, this will NOT totally fix the financial problems of the Trust Fund - that is unless we are not gonna give a comparable benefit for the increase in contributions.  Of course, that is how it will work - at least I hope they are thinking about giving at least some benefit.

But there is certainly not enough to totally fix the Trust Fund AND add more benefits 

IF NO added benefit is gonna be given then why not  just make it another welfare program.

The other thing is this would also be very detrimental to employment at the present time.  The Social Security Actuaries say - “However, in response to the increased payroll tax in section 201 for 2025 and later, we assume employers will redistribute total employee compensation among taxes, wages, and other compensation. 

This behavioral response reduces the increase in both payroll tax revenue and scheduled benefits that would accrue in the absence of this behavioral response.”

(page 13 of the link to the bill’s analysis) - see below.

Here is the Actuarial analysis to this same bill when it was introduced in 2023 for the 2nd time for anybody that wants to read it. 

SSA.gov - Office of the SSA Chief Actuary - 07/12/2023 - Social Security 2100 Act 

You know whatever is done - if anything is done - it does need to be fair and it should not harm our economy elsewhere - employers and companies go by their bottom line in decision making and if they are having to match a lots more in Social Security contributions for their employees, they will find some way to pay for it - like raise prices or eliminate some jobs.  

People may not realize it but those that have money are the ones spending it right now - in other words, they may be currently responsible in keeping  many industries financially healthy right now - places and jobs that hire a lot of people. They are still buying homes, they are still traveling, they are still going out to restaurants,  they are still building / adding onto or maintaining their homes - If their money is going to be going elsewhere then they will not be spending as much in those other industries; making it difficult for those industries to keep their employment up.