The Editorial Board of the Washington Post has come out with its plan to “save” Social Security. It’s fairly simple: means test benefits. They don’t even mention the possibility of raising taxes. They don’t engage with the fact that means testing Social Security doesn’t even “save” Social Security unless you apply it quite harshly to those now receiving Social Security or you use vast amounts of general revenues to make up the difference, something they dismiss off the top.
You’d never guess that the Post is owned by Jeff Bezos who’s worth more than $280 billion.
Right wing think tanks and editorial pages seem to be coalescing around means testing Social Security as their demand for “saving” Social Security. I think Republicans in Congress will stand behind this demand — way behind it, like on a different continent.
The Democratic plan is to lift the cap on FICA. That’s vastly more popular with the public than turning Social Security into a “welfare” program. As someone once said, a program for poor people is a poor program. Democrats aren’t agreeing to means testing.
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