Social Security Solvency: It’s Easy

The simple, fast, risk-free, fair, and painless way to ensure the solvency of Social Security is to remove the salary cap for contributions. Currently earnings in excess of $90,000 are not taxed. That’s right, as one’s income rises above the $90K mark his or her contribution percentage is reduced, making Social Security the king of all regressive taxes. For example, someone right at the $90K level pays 6.25% of this $90K into Social Security. Someone making double that, or $180K, only pays in 3.125%. Someone making $360K pays in only 1.5625%. Last year, Tiger Woods made $80,300,000. Want to guess how much he paid? Approximately .007%. That is 7 one thousandths of one percent! Had a person making $90K been taxed at Tiger’s rate he or she would have paid in $6.30 instead of $5,625.00. Wouldn’t we all like to have that deal?

The solution to the solvency of Social Security is staring at you in the numbers presented above. Everyone should at least be paying the same rate on their earnings and the only way to do that is to eliminate the cap. But, forgive me, I forgot. That would be the fair thing to do, and Bush does not know the meaning of that four-letter “F” word. I guess he and I are even when you consider that every time I think of him I think of the other four-letter “F” word.