Protect and Expand Social Security

Join us to tell the President and members of Congress: it's time to "Scrap the Cap" on Social Security, so everyone pays the same tax rate for the same guarantee.

Social Security is funded through deductions to everyone’s paychecks. We pay in while we’re working, then collect benefits when we retire or become disabled. But not everyone pays equally into the system.

By requiring upper-income taxpayers to pay Social Security taxes on all of their income, we can protect funding for this vital program for decades to come.

Subject: Protect and Expand Social Security
Dear Legislator,

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Americans are facing an unprecedented retirement security crisis, and Social Security’s importance to American workers and their families will only grow as the United States faces an approaching retirement income crisis. That's why I urge you to "Scrap the Cap" on taxable earnings for Social Security.

Social Security is the nation’s most secure and conservatively invested public trust, and the only guaranteed source of retirement security for every American. But while 94% of American workers pay Social Security tax on every dollar in their paycheck, most of the earnings of the top 1 percent – and especially the top 0.1 percent – escape most Social Security taxes due to the program's cap on taxable earnings. And unearned investment income goes entirely untaxed!

Scrapping the cap on taxable earning would extend the Trust Fund’s surplus for an additional 35 years, according to the Congressional Research Service, and taxing unearned investment income would extend that time frame even further. That's certainly far enough in the future for policymakers to make additional adjustments if necessary.

Make no mistake, this is a popular idea: two-thirds of Americans support requiring high-income workers to pay Social Security taxes on all of their wages (as is already the case with Medicare taxes) -- and only 6.1% of workers (less than 1 in 15) would pay more.

Democrats have introduced several plans to protect and expand Social Security, and pay for it by requiring the wealthy to contribute their fair share:

- Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), recently introduced the Social Security Expansion Act. This bill protects and expands Social Security and pays for it by requiring the wealthy to pay in on all their income, including unearned investment income.

- Rep. John Larson’s Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust protects and expands Social Security, and pays for it by requiring the wealthy to pay their fair share. In the last Congress, it was co-sponsored by about 90% of House Democrats.

I urge you to support both of these measures.

Thank you.

Sources: 
Social Security: Raising or Eliminating the Taxable Earnings Base, December 2021, Congressional Research Service: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL32896

The Economic Opportunity Institute (EOI) manages this page on behalf of Social Security Works - Washington. You can contact EOI at info@eoionline.org, or contact Social Security Works - WA at ssworkswa@gmail.com.

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