From a report on opinion polling performed by Greenwald Research for the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI):
... This survey’s primary finding is that Americans overwhelmingly want to see Social Security’s financing gap closed by bringing in more revenues—and are willing to contribute more to strengthen the program’s finances. When asked which statement comes closest to their view, 85 percent of respondents selected either that we should ensure benefits are not reduced, or that we should increase benefits, even if it means raising taxes on some or all Americans. Only 15 percent of respondents selected the response that we shouldn’t raise taxes on any American even if it means benefits are reduced. This broad preference for raising revenues versus reducing benefits cuts across political, income, education, and generational lines; among Republicans, more than 3 in 4 prefer increasing revenues to benefit reductions, with more than 9 in 10 Democrats and more than 8 in 10 Independents sharing this preference.
Of all the policies tested, respondents most strongly preferred lifting the payroll tax cap. Respondents also strongly supported increasing the payroll tax rate from 6.2 percent to 7.2 percent for both employers and employees, to ensure solvency and maintain current benefits. Changes that would result in lower benefits, such as raising the retirement age or adopting cost-of-living adjustments, had little support. ...
We are in the Project 2025 era where little surveys don’t matter. I wonder if Republican federal employees are happy with their vote.
ReplyDeleteSure am.
DeleteOvernight, Wired reported that, contrary to published reports that DOGE operatives at the Treasury Department are limited to “read only” access to department payment systems, this is not true. A 25-year-old DOGE operative named Marko Elez in fact has admin privileges on these critical systems, which directly control and pay out roughly 95% of payments made by the U.S. government, including Social Security checks, tax refunds and virtually all contract payments. I can independently confirm these details based on conversations going back to the weekend. I can further report that Elez not only has full access to these systems, he has already made extensive changes to the code base for these critical payment system.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this information.
DeleteWell I hope they’re cool with what a fraction of the population voted for because the Project 2025 folks think we can shift retirement off to 401Ks. Disability will be provided by private insurance if you can afford it.
ReplyDeleteIn a new letter to Congress, the Treasury Department said Social Security and Medicare payments have not been delayed or re-routed, while Musk's team has "read only" access.
ReplyDeleteYes, a 1% increase for individuals across the board and 1% for the company match! This is what I have been touting for the last couple years. Will anyone listen?
ReplyDelete@10:18 This would probably be the most politically viable solution in a GOP majority government. Far from the best solution, but something needs to be done soon.
ReplyDeleteA fairer solution would be taxing all payroll above 400,000, and a 1% overall payroll tax raise split 50/50. This would extend the trust fund to 2089 according to the CFPB interactive tool.
Increasing taxes on high income earners making above $400,000 is extremely popular. Its an 80% issue but will never happen with the GOP in control.
https://www.crfb.org/socialsecurityreformer/
Yup. Raise the taxable limit and add another bendpoint for like 1% or something past maybe 5k. People can complain but their reward for their hard work is making more in one year than most people make in ten. If they're not happy about it, they're welcome to make less money, nobody is going to stop them.
Delete10 years? We have known about the strain the Boomers would put on the system for half a century. Anywhere in the last 30 years while some Boomers were still working and moving into the highest earning years the tax should have been increased. It wasnt. Let those that did nothing face the reward of nothing.
ReplyDeleteMost people that understand the issue at all are in favor of increasing or eliminating the cap on earnings subject to tax. The only people against that are the ones making over the cap, currently $176,100. And since that group includes the billionaire bros now making the decisions for the current administration, I don't expect that common sense change to happen anytime soon
ReplyDeleteIncreasing the cap will help but billionaires won't be paying much more. They won't pay themselves salaries, instead paying rent, dividends, etc. They didn't get rich paying the most they could in taxes.
DeleteSSA's actuarial calculations have already taken that into account. Most, but not all, is in stock options, etc, but enough in salary.
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