The GOP will raise taxes — on the middle class

If you are being paid a wage by an employer, whatever the wage happens to be even if it is in excess of $1 million a year, the return to the former level for the privilege to be employed tax would be applied equally to you as it was to someone making $50 K year. It is not only those making under the magical $106K a year that would be subject to the increase, anyone subject to the tax, including millionaires and billionaires, would see their taxes go back up to the former level, right? So this would be an across the board increase in taxes, not an increase on the poor and the middle class alone. Your droppings of intrigue do not alter the facts Dog.

SS109 wrote: Consider this please. If you worked at a 20K job all your life you get the same SS benefits as the guy who was earning 100K all his life.

I don't think this is correct. The SS benefit amt. is tied to a complicated formula proportional to your highest earning years. So a 100K dude does get more than a 20K dude, I'm pretty sure. (its more like 2:1 instead of 5:1)

I believe SS should be reformed and flattened to a single number based on cash flow in the system, maybe based on total years worked, not income. It is really a safety net, not a pension. There also should be a separate funding source and better management of SSDI, that part is going broke right now.

Joe wrote:

SS109 wrote: Consider this please. If you worked at a 20K job all your life you get the same SS benefits as the guy who was earning 100K all his life.

The SS benefit amt. is tied to a complicated formula proportional to your highest earning years. So a 100K dude does get more than a 20K dude, I'm pretty sure.

That's true... SS109 is wrong...as usual...

Social Security benefits are based on earnings averaged over most of a worker's lifetime. The benefit computation is complex and there is no simple method or table to tell you how much you may receive. However, there are several ways you can estimate your retirement benefits.

Something the Dog Said wrote:

PrintSmith wrote: More Dog droppings. The reality of the situation is that everyone would be subject to the tax increase, including those evil rich folks that are the continuing subject of the regressive class warfare strategy.

More lies again. The reality of the situation is that investment income, hedge fund managers, even regular income above $106,000 and other special interest uber-wealthy individuals would not be subject to the tax increase, it only applies to income below $106,000. But don't let the facts get in your way. And it is war that the GOP tools of the wealthy and corporists are waging on middle class Americans.

You limit the benefits, therefore you limit the amount which is subject to this payroll tax. Otherwise, if you still limit the benefit, and remove the $106k ceiling, you are effectively adding a pure tax to these people. Might as well just raise the federal income tax on them, and be honest about it.

FICA and Fed income tax are 2 completely different animals.

And if you apply the FICA to ALL income instead of just the first $106K, it will solve the problem for the next century and beyond... Works for me... (And trust me, it will hit me harder than you...)

Which presumes that there will be no deleterious affect of doing that - which we know is not the case. There is a reason projected revenue from tax increases is always significantly lower than projected - along with other "unintended" consequences. Remember the pension plans that used to be offered to nearly every worker? Remember they started disappearing right around the time the feds started doubling the privilege tax rate and the amount of income subject to the tax? It wasn't a coincidence that the pensions that SS was supposed to be a supplement for disappeared for most workers when the privilege to have employee taxes increased 400% for most of the companies in this nation.

Remove the ceiling on the amount of income subject to the privilege tax and you just might give the newest generation of workers a very good reason to be the first group of citizens since SS was instituted to enact legislation which allows workers and employers to avoid paying the tax in the same manner that most public union employees avoid supporting the system. It is not out of the realm of possibility. The Supreme Court has already ruled that none of us have a private property right to the "insurance benefits" provided by the program. The only benefits to which you are "entitled" are those which the government decides, out of its benevolence, to grant you.

LadyJazzer wrote: (And trust me, it will hit me harder than you...)

If you have money you don't need, and the program is so important, what is stopping you from taxing yourself at this level to set an example for others to follow LJ? You are only willing to do it if others are forced to do it as well?

LadyJazzer wrote: And if you apply the FICA to ALL income instead of just the first $106K, it will solve the problem for the next century and beyond... Works for me... (And trust me, it will hit me harder than you...)

So with your proposal, would both the employer and employee have to pay that $$ over $106k? If so, just be honest, and increase the federal income tax on those making over $106,800 by 12.4%.

I just want intellectual honesty here...not hiding behind "ss".

Nope... You've asked that before, and I've answered it before.

It would be on the employee side only; the employer would still get capped at $106K.

I believe when you reach your maximum limit of payout you are no longer having to pay SS.