The Rich Don’t Pay, So You Will

Social Security’s fake crisis is here. The solution is obvious. The obstruction is deliberate.

This week’s Social Security Trustees Report confirmed what many feared but few will address with any honesty: the projected insolvency date for Social Security’s trust funds has moved up to 2034, one year earlier than previously estimated. That means that unless Congress acts, every single Social Security beneficiary, retirees, disabled workers, widows, and survivors, will face an automatic 19% cut to their monthly checks. For millions who rely on these payments to stay afloat, that would be catastrophic. And yet, the political class continues to frame this as if it’s an unpredictable storm rolling in from nowhere, rather than the entirely foreseeable result of decades of intentional neglect.

Social Security’s financing problem is not an accident of nature, demographics, or fate. It is the direct consequence of deliberate policy choices made by Congress over many years, under the influence of billionaires, corporations, and privatization ideologues who have long dreamed of dismantling one of the most successful social insurance programs in human history.

These numbers are straightforward. Social Security is funded primarily by payroll taxes on wages up to $176,100 per year. Anything you earn above that amount is entirely exempt from contributing to the system. That means that a nurse earning $60,000 pays the full Social Security tax on every dollar, while a CEO pulling in $5 million pays on only the first $176,100. Lawmakers established this cap in the 1980s, and it has barely kept pace with rising income inequality since then. The more wealth concentrates at the top, the less revenue Social Security receives. Rather than a Social Security crisis, we have a wealth hoarding crisis.

This year’s earlier insolvency date was partially driven by Congress itself. The passage of the Social Security Fairness Act expanded benefits for 3.2 million Americans, many of whom had been unfairly penalized by outdated federal offset rules. This long-overdue fix boosted monthly checks for millions but came with no corresponding revenue increases. Congress, as usual, passed the benefits but ducked the bill.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made matters worse by gutting the Social Security Administration itself. Budget cuts, staff reductions, and hiring freezes have hamstrung the agency’s ability to serve the public. Processing times have ballooned. Field offices are overwhelmed. And a surge of anxious near-retirees have filed for benefits earlier than planned, fearing that the system is becoming unstable, an entirely rational fear given the nonstop political brinkmanship surrounding it.

What happens next is a choice. Congress could stabilize Social Security permanently tomorrow by simply raising or eliminating the income cap, making wealthier Americans pay into the system on all their income just as working-class Americans already do. Poll after poll shows that a large majority of Americans across the political spectrum support this approach. But Republicans, led by longtime privatization champions, have resisted any effort to increase revenue. Instead, they propose raising the full retirement age to 70, which is nothing more than a cruel benefit cut dressed up as fiscal responsibility. For millions of workers in physically demanding jobs, extending the retirement age is a death sentence, not a solution.

The real risk now is that Republicans will allow the insolvency date to approach without serious action, manufacturing a “crisis” that they will then use as political cover to force through privatization schemes, means testing, or deep benefit cuts, all while protecting the wealth of their donor class.

The same pattern is unfolding with Medicare, which faces its own insolvency date in 2033. Trump’s hand-picked CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz is already using the same talking points: “urgent reform,” “difficult choices,” and other euphemisms for cutting services or handing over more control to private insurers.

The solutions are not mysterious.

• Eliminate the income cap on Social Security payroll taxes. Apply the full payroll tax to all wages, not just the first $176,100. This alone would fully fund the system for generations.

• Expand, don’t cut, benefits. As the cost of living rises and private pensions disappear, we should strengthen Social Security, not weaken it.

• Restore administrative capacity. Fully fund the Social Security Administration to provide timely and accurate service to millions of Americans who depend on it.

This is not revolutionary. It shows responsible governance. But it requires dismantling decades of propaganda designed to convince Americans that Social Security is unsustainable, that government is incompetent, and that Wall Street knows best.

The clock is ticking. 2034 is closer than it sounds. The choices we make in the next few years will determine whether Social Security remains the bedrock of American retirement security, or whether it is carved up and handed over to the same financiers who have already looted so much else.

This is our fight. Don’t let them pretend otherwise.