If changes aren't made to Social Security, the agency will run out of money in about 10 years. If that happens, January 6th will look like a picnic with seniors marching (or let's say, hobbling, rolling, or being carried) on Washington. Their canes will become lethal weapons, and instead of installing one hangman's noose, there will be hundreds of them in a row with the spectacle of scores of politicians in their fitted suits and crisp shirts dangling from the end of their respective ropes.
Cutting Social Security has often been called the Third Rail in politics - you just don't go there as Senator Rick Scott found out when he had to backtrack from his proposal to end it every so often and then vote on whether or not to reinstate the popular entitlement.
The answer is simple and that's to pass legislation put forward by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren that would raise the $162K cap on the amount of money that's now taxed to pay for the program. In addition they want to add $2,400 each year to payments made to beneficiaries, both of which would guarantee solvency for at least another 75 years. Someone who makes $30 million/year now pays the same rate as the poor bastard who earns $30 thousand.
But no - The Republicans will scream that this is RAISING TAXES and they won't stand for it, even though the modest tax increase would be levied on the well-to-do and not the millions of folks in poverty who rely on their checks, which keep them from sleeping under bridges at night.
Comments