Please stop screaming 'Crisis' on Social Security and just 'scrap the cap' already

A Letter From Iowan David R. Russell

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David Russell

Today some 73 million of us 340 million Americans get Social Security benefits, not only seniors like me who paid in all their lives but also many disabled who rely on it for their entire income. I hope that one day my children and grandsons can rely on it being there, along with other entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid, as well as student loans and grants, disaster relief, medical research, and a host of other good things included in the federal budget – things now under attack in the name of fiscal responsibility.

But I’m old enough to have heard calls of “Crisis!” about the federal budget for literally generations. As in recent months, those cries almost always come from those in one party who want to use a budget crisis they created to cut entitlements like SS. I’ve learned that cries of “Crisis!” don’t come from people who are serious about balancing the budget. I don’t need to remind any adult that balancing a budget can mean not only cutting expenses but increasing income. Yet too often, as today, the people who cry “Crisis” the loudest are also those who want to cut the government’s income to give tax cuts to the wealthy. That is, to offset tax cuts for the rich with cuts in entitlements for the rest.

I’ve seen this game played over and over and over. Ronald Reagan passed a huge tax cut tilted to the wealthy in 1982. Bill Clinton balanced the budget and had a surplus when he left office. George W. Bush passed a huge tax cut tilted toward the rich in 2001 that blew up the budget again. Then Barack Obama got control of the deficit after a true economic crisis and brought it way down – until Donald Trump passed another huge tax cut tilted toward you know who. Trump in his first term ran the deficit up twice as much as Joe Biden. And now Trump and his majority in congress are itching to pass another tilted tax cut. Don’t believe me? Google “Party of fiscal responsibility.”

So about that “crisis”: It’s true that in 2035 Social Security benefits will have to be cut by about 20% if we do nothing — a huge hit to many beneficiaries. But it’s incredibly easy to guarantee full benefits forever to everyone — or even increase benefits or lower SS taxes. There’s a cap (limit) on the income that people pay Social Security taxes on, currently $176,000. Why should the wealthy who make millions pay SS tax only on the first $176,000? A bill in Congress (H.R. 4583) would apply the current SS income tax (6.5%) to those who make more than $400,000 a year and tax their investment income as well. If we “scrap the cap,” the wealthiest among us would simply pay a bit more. Not a crisis.

The money raised would not only guarantee full benefits for the foreseeable future, it could also pay for increases in benefits across the board, improved cost-of-living adjustments, a boost in benefits for low-income seniors and widows/widowers, caregiver credits, and more. Congress could even allow the Social Security payroll tax to be reduced for ordinary Americans.

But too many of our leaders are running around screaming “Crisis!” instead of applying a simple fix. I would ask those of us who make less than $400,000 a year to consider that the best way to fix the budget is to elect more leaders from the party of fiscal responsibility.

David R. Russell
Ames, Iowa

Letters From Iowans is a part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. We encourage you, our subscribers, to share your perspective in this column. To make your voice heard, use this form to send us your essay:

Letters From Iowans FORM