Social Security and the Payroll Tax

[BayCityProgressive]

These are two issues I think Dems should hammer on. The payroll tax hurts working americans much more than the wealthy and punishes work. Why not tax air and water polluters and use that revenue to give low-middle income workers a payroll tax credit? What do we do to save social security benefits? Yes, the system is fine for the next 40 or so years, but we don't want to see reductions in benefits and we don't want to raise payrol taxes so how do we fix this problem?

[EVDebs]

1. Raise the payroll tax cap to $500,000 and eliminate the AMT !

Is this doable ? How much money would eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax cost and could upping the payroll tax income cap to $500,000 (or whatever the amount would be) do the trick ?

[Vincardog]

3. Let the Cap stay where it is and re-impose it at 250,000 and up

The cap is now 90,000/year.

[papau]

4. I believe eliminating the payroll cap is a bit more than a 100billion a yr

or a trillion over 10.

The Alt Min is perhaps 600B over 10 yr.

The net would certainily help - but in yearly terms it is only 40 billion - not the 200 B per yr. gift to the rich that the Bush tax cut will be providing.

[EVDebs]

9. I would like to see the AMT removed and maybe a compromise with

Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on raising the SS cap from $90K to (his proposal is $120K) much higher.

This may be something Dems COULD work with rational compromising Repubs on. I hear he's already under neocon attack and thus more likely to deal !

[BayCityProgressive]

5. Any way

that Dems could be portrayed as tax cutters for the middle class instead of tax raisers like they are seen as would be a good thing. We would be rewarding work by cutitng payroll tax and punishing hurtful actions by taxing polution. Also, what about a personal tax free account for college? every child born could get a 500 dollar lump sum place din it and family could put money in the fund to be withdrawn tax free when the child becomes an adult. Perhaps tax outsourcing companies and give people who work or do 20 hours of community service a week an extra 1,000 dollars in rebates a year as long as they recieve a 3.0 or higher in each class.

[Vincardog]

2. To fix SSI impose Social Security on incomes over 250,000/yr

Let Cheney and the CEOs pay for the workers whose salaries they are repressing/out sourcing. Every one of them is worth 400 workers. How about imposing Social Security tax on the Executive Stock Option income? How about worrying about a Real Problem like the erosion of Civil Rights and or the pollution of the environment?

[Mountainman]

6. Repay the money given as tax cuts

We need to undo what has happened the last four years that took us from a surplus to a deficit.

The whole thing is about were you put the money. Do we help people or fight wars?

200 billion for a war that has no purpose! Stop the war, reverse the tax cuts and fund Social Security.

[StatGirl]

7. Redirect taxes on pensions

The Federal government takes my FICA taxes, sets some of it in the "trust fund" and sends the rest to my dad.

My dad also has pension and investment income, so the Social Security that he receives essentially goes to pay his federal taxes. (I don't have a problem with that, I might add.)

So a new rule: If a person receives Social Security and pays federal taxes, those federal taxes shall be redirected back into the Social Security fund, up to the amount of Social Security he received.

No new taxes for Dad, just an accounting tweak. I wonder if it would add up to anything useful?

[unblock]

8. abolish the payroll tax. fund it all through federal income tax.

labor income is taxed by the combination of social security tax and federal income tax, and it's on a silly scale. the income tax appears progressive, but add the social security's flat-tax-with-cap and you get a policy mess.

i think the payroll tax should be abolished entirely, and the amounts needed to properly fund social security and medicare should come out of federal income tax revenues, which are clean and simply progressive.

of course, the marginal tax rates would have to go up quite a bit to make up for the loss of the 15.3% fica tax (employer and employee share combined), and the politics of this probably makes this idea impossible. sigh.

i also don't know what the actual tax rates would need to be. not an easy calculation, since payroll is taxed from the first dollar, no deductions, whereas the federal income tax isn't, etc.

my guess, though is that people would freak at an income tax hike of around 15%, even if they saved money with the payroll tax going away.

one way around the political problems might be to leave the corporate contribution as is, so there's only 7.65% to make up for. but of course that has its own political problems....