Spread the word
In all the blather over Social Security reform on the talk shows, how many times have you heard it mentioned that if the payroll tax cap were raised from $90K to $200K, as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R - South Carolina) has proposed, the projected shortfall in the S.S. trust fund would be entirely eliminated?
Of course, Congressional Republicans have all but rejected the idea as a tax hike, and so it has little hope of success. And Graham himself has proposed it as a way to finance a privatization plan. But how many citizens, if given the information that a payroll tax cap raise to $200K (affecting 6% of taxpayers) would eliminate any anticipated shortfall in Social Security for at least the next 75 years, wouldn't find that an appealing option?
And here's another question worth asking. The payroll tax cap of $90K was established, I assume, in 1983. What justification is there for maintaining the cap as a fixed ceiling rather than adjusting it to wage growth or inflation? After all, $90K today is a very different level of income from $90K in 1983.
The only reason I can see for the fixed ceiling is that it was agreed upon as a political solution. But that's an explanation, not a justification.
10:50:36 PM 
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