Thanks, New York Times, for compromising away seniors Social Security income

[sheshe2]

I should have come across this sooner. Perhaps it was the Ghost of Christmas Past, trying to postpone my un-holiday-like outrage for a while, that caused me to overlook it.


I refer to a piece by the Times Editorial Board offering to bargain away part of the Social Security benefits that seniors currently receive.


The Times began by pretending to oppose benefits cuts that Republicans are proposing to “save” Social Security. Never mind that the whole shebang can be saved for the foreseeable future simply by raising the cap on deductions.


The cap — the point at which the government stops deducting Social Security taxes from your pay check — is currently at $110,000 a year. And even the Times article agrees that “the wage cap has not kept pace with the income gains of high earners; if it had, it would be about $250,000 a year.

So just restore the wage cap to its inflation-adjusted level and everybody’s happy. Well, maybe the million-bucks-a-year corporate C-Suite inhabitant gets irked because it takes a few months longer before the withholding from his pay check is reduced. But nearly everybody lives happily ever after, right?


Read More: http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2016/12/thanks-new-york-times-for-compromising.html

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Thank you tRump voters. You own this lock stock and barrel. Bon effing Appetit.

[Angry Dragon]

1. if it good enough for Reagan

[stopbush]

2. The only argument I've ever heard against raising the cap to, say, $250k

is that "the people who would have to pay that would never, ever receive an equal benefit in return from SS. They'd be overpaying into the system."

You know who currently overpays into the system? Every person who has paid into SS at any level but dies before they reach retirement age and never collects a dime. Right behind them are the millions of people who do retire but die within a few years and never get back benefits equal to all the $ they paid in over the years. Right behind them are the workers who had a decent paying job for decades but lost that job due to Republican economic policies and who earned a lot less for a decade or so before retiring, with the diminished income lowering the monthly $ amount that they will receive in benefits.

[Berlin Vet]

4. Rich People Won't Like That

I recently posted that we should eliminate the cap and got a response along the lines of "Well rich people don't what to pay more to Social Security and the companies they work for don't want to pay more either."
I was stunned by this response. If rich people don't want to do something, then we have to drop that and never bring it up again.

[Jim Beard]

7. I think I remember reading the same and was also shocked.............

As the Times pointed out, the higher wage earners live longer and are a larger cost to the system.

I liked the article.

[DesertFlower]

8. my late husband always reached the CAP -- usually

around september. it was nice to have a few extra bucks each pay day, but at the cost of saving social security i wouldn't have been upset to lose it.

medicare doesn't have a CAP so why should social security. same as SS some people die before getting medicare.

[Berlin Vet]

3. A Winner for 2018

If we run against every Republican House member that supports this we can/should take back the house in 2018. Back in 2010 when the Republicans started with changing Medicare, my (Republican) newly elected Congresswoman held two town halls and all the questions were about the plan to give vouchers instead of Medicare. After that she never had another town hall.

[Jim Beard]

5. I read the entire New York Times Editoral and I did not read anything about

them wanting to screw over the people on Social Security. They were informing us of all the evil plans some of the Republicans have presented.

It wasn't the NYT.

One thing that they did do wrong was to re expose Paul Ryan who wants to destroy Medicare.

[DesertFlower]

6. medicare doesn't have a CAP so

why should social security.

[Berlin Vet]

9. I Forgot That

Thanks for reminding me about no cap on Medicare. We need to strengthen these programs that help the poor and working class not destroy them. If we can't use this issue to take back the House and Senate in 2018 then our party is really weak.