By Elaine Still
BRASELTON, Ga. | The politicization of Social Security is so unnecessary. I vividly remember in the 1980’s of my mother’s fear that she would lose her Social Security benefits. She depended heavily on that income and spent many hours worrying about what she would do when she lost it. Many political candidates used the threat of ending benefits as a political football to obtain votes. Forty-five years later, we continue to hear that scare tactic.
Still
The current administration, to my knowledge, has not proposed ending benefits for persons receiving Social Security. Yes, the program needs to address the funding problem that has been kicked down the road for far too long by both political parties. Current Social Security tax collections are used to pay retirement benefits. In the past, those taxes more than supported the program and a fund was established with the excess monies collected.
Now, with the combination of fewer people paying into system and baby boomers retiring and living longer, this fund is being used to supplement benefit payments. Estimates indicate the fund will become insolvent by 2034, which would necessitate a reduction in benefits as only payroll tax income would be available to pay benefits.
The system will not “run out of money” as long as we have a workforce paying into the system. To prevent the depletion of the fund, or reducing benefits, funding options need to be examined. There are fixes. One option is increasing the maximum amount of taxable earnings for social security.
Everyone with earned income of roughly $175,000 and below pay Social Security taxes on 100 percent of their income. (Earned income that is, not investment or other income). After the maximum amount of taxable earnings is reached, no tax is paid. Thus, a person earning $50,000 pays tax on all of their earnings, while a person earning $500,000 is not subject to social security taxes on $325,000 of their earnings.
Increasing the maximum taxable amount subject to Social Security taxes will not likely be a popular remedy, but neither will increasing the tax rate nor increasing the full retirement age, nor reducing benefits for current benefit recipients. However, something needs to be done fairly soon. As a part of any solution, procedures should be put in place to detect and eliminate fraudulent payments.
Both political parties need to be focused on finding a future funding solution, not on accusing each other of espousing an end to Social Security benefits.
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