Simply raising taxes to close Social Security's long-term annual...
Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦@JessicaBRiedl
41 views
Oct 08, 2026
~1 min read
Advertisement
1
Simply raising taxes to close Social Security's long-term annual shortfall (1.5% of GDP) is easy - as long as you don't care about saving any tax space to pay for Medicare's larger shortfall (3.5%), debt interest costs, or any other spending wishlist item that requires new taxes.
2
Many progressives have this habit of recycling the same tax proposals on the same limited tax base to pay for Social Security, and then also Medicare, education, health care, safety net, climate, childcare, infrastructure, and more.
But govt can seize a given dollar only once.
But govt can seize a given dollar only once.
3
Uncapping the payroll tax brings the top marginal rate to 63% in California, 60% in NYC, etc.
That's about as high as can rates go on the rich. Even leading left-wing economists agree that going much higher will stop increasing revenues. That's the limit.
That's about as high as can rates go on the rich. Even leading left-wing economists agree that going much higher will stop increasing revenues. That's the limit.
4
So yes, we can closely half of Social Security's funding gap by maxing out tax rates on the rich.
But why? Just so that the richest retired couples don't have to pare back their $100k benefits by $1? Why not spend it on kids & working families who are shortchanged in the budget?
But why? Just so that the richest retired couples don't have to pare back their $100k benefits by $1? Why not spend it on kids & working families who are shortchanged in the budget?