Summary
President Biden will sign the Social Security Fairness Act, boosting payments for nearly 3 million public service retirees by eliminating the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset.
The changes will increase benefits by an average of $360–$1,190 monthly, including backdated payments starting January 2024.
Advocates call it a historic victory for educators, firefighters, and others, correcting a 40-year inequity.
While some Republicans supported the legislation, others argued it was unsustainable and would hasten the program’s insolvency.
There is a very simple solution to the so-called “insolvency”, but the qons will fight it tooth and nail, thanks to the owner-donors.
Yup. Raise the income cap. That’s all you have to do.
The last time Social Security was majorly reformed was back in the 1980s. They did it specifically to handle the pressures the Baby Boomers would be putting on the system. They set it on a path then, that while not as progressive as anyone on the left would like, was financially sustainable. But when planning something like that, it’s a big demographic puzzle. When trying to plan a system for decades into the future, you have to assume a certain population pyramid and income distribution. They set the income cap then at a level where 90% of the income earned in the country would be subject to Social Security tax. We’ve had similar economic growth to what they estimated; we’re not poorer, in terms of raw GDP, than we should be. What’s changed is the income distribution. More of the nation’s income is earned by those at the top. So now only 80% of the income or so earned is subject to the tax. In reality, we should just eliminate it entirely. Let all income be subject to it. If that ends up with billionaires paying a fortune in to Social Security and receiving a relative pittance of benefit in return, so be it.
To paraphrase Bernie, let them survive on mere billions.
Billionaires - especially ones like Elon - should be thankful that they were permitted to accrue so much wealth on the backs of so many others. Paying it forward by paying their fair share into SS is the very least they could do.