Choice detail: Social Security

Choice 1: Maintain Our Commitments Through A Combination Of Benefit Cuts And Tax Increases

Our government should keep Social Security intact so that all Americans can have a stable retirement. Even if it requires raising taxes significantly, or slashing spending on other government programs, the promise of income security in retirement years for every American must be honored. It is immoral and unthinkable to arbitrarily reduce benefits to older Americans because of the financial pressures created by the size of the baby boom generation. Many experts see restoring solvency to Social Security as a fairly simple math problem, in which a combination of small tax increases, benefit cuts, and increases in the retirement age could preserve the program as it is.


Therefore, we should:

  • Increase taxes dedicated to Social Security — to keep the Social Security program solvent.
  • Increase the Social Security payroll tax cap, so that earned income above $102,000 a year is taxed.
  • Change the formulas for how benefits are calculated, reducing benefits for those who need them least.
  • Have state and local government workers pay Social Security taxes.
  • Gradually raise the retirement age for those who are healthy and able-bodied to 70 (or index to rising life expectancy) to control costs, or index the retirement age to rising life expectancy.
  • We'll also need to decide which federal programs to cut in order to ensure that there's enough money to support Social Security, or else the sales tax will be unreasonably large. For instance, we might decide to cut federal education programs (leaving it to state and local government to pick up the slack), or cut back on military spending.
  • Slightly increase individual and/or employer Social Security taxes.

 


Pros and Cons for this Choice
Discuss this choicework