Fixing Social Security 4 Dummies

I’d like to thank House Speaker and Trump Flunky Rep. Mike Johnson for handing Democratic candidates another perfect line of attack and ad fodder:

If ever there’s an issue to galvanize Baby Boomers and Gen X, it’s a threat to Social Security and Medicare, and Speaker Johnson just put it on the radar, front and center.

Know that by saying, “They have to be adjusted and fixed,” he does NOT mean endowed with more funding; he means cutting payments to us and raising/delaying the qualifying age.

Without intervention, given the next expected Cost of Living Adjustment, Social Security is calculated to be solvent for only seven more years. That should get the attention of everyone in their 50s, 60s, and up, or in other words, a ton of highly likely voters.

Republicans cannot be counted on to help with this in any fashion other than cutting payouts. They and the donors to whom they are obligated are against any more money coming from the wealthy. Their only solution is to cut the payments back to the public.

And this is coming at a time when inflation is soaring, and the cost of living is higher than ever, along with jobs being lost to AI and a general downturn in domestic production. Millions of Americans count on Social Security to keep their noses above water, even though they always say not to rely solely on Social Security. But many never had the opportunity to work for jobs offering pensions or 401 (k) participation. Many had health problems that sucked up their money, or kids going to college, ongoing disabilities or long-term under-employment.
The glaringly obvious solution is to raise the “cap” over which Social Security taxes are no longer paid, which for 2026 is $184,500. That means that the country’s million, billion, and trillionaires pay zero into Social Security after that first $184.5k. That’s a lot of dough to leave on the table.

Add to this that there’s no valid reason the cap exists, other than rich people want it that way so they can keep more money. Therefore, the rest of us end up paying a much higher percentage of our income than these rich bastards do. So they’ve done a good job of buying off one party completely, and enough of the other party to keep the status quo.

No, I don’t have any proof of the latter, but keep in mind that even when the Democrats had control of both Houses and the Presidency, there was never a real attempt to fix Social Security by raising revenue via any means. That tells me it hasn‘t been a Democratic priority for anyone but Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and maybe a few others.

Depending on how much the cap changed, raising it on Elon Musk alone could set up Social Security for decades or longer, and he would still have billions left over to buy into and destroy the next tech company he fancies.

One action fixes the entire problem, benefits hundreds of millions, and slightly inconveniences a couple of gazillionaires. It should be a slam dunk.

The question is, will anyone in Congress seriously get on board, in numbers enough to get it done? I think that should be a question put to every single Congressional candidate from now until it happens.

In every Q&A session, every town hall, every campaign stop, every interview, someone needs to ask, “Why is it more important for the cap to stay in place, benefiting millionaires, rather than changing it to benefit millions of average citizens?” Make them explain why they’re not taking aggressive action to raise the cap. Have them explain it like we’re five, and be ready to debunk the inevitable but fallacious claims that the cap provides capital to create jobs and pay increases. It doesn’t, or else we’d be flush with well-paying jobs right now. No, they have to explain why the rich are getting the special treatment at the expense of the rest of us, many of whom are barely clinging to keeping a roof overhead and food in the fridge. Get their answers on the record and use them to bombard the candidates with attack ads.

This needs to be made into a disqualifying position in the next and every subsequent election, for everyone running, regardless of party affiliation. No support for a cap raise, no vote for you.

We don’t have time left to screw around here. We can see the disaster coming, and the longer we wait, the harder and less effective any fix will be.