Social Security is in severe financial trouble: if Congress does nothing, the program will be able to pay only 83% of its promised benefits beginning in 2035, under the latest projections. A new bill, the Social Security Fairness Act, that would increase benefits for more than 3 million workers who also receive public pensions could make the situation worse, advancing the depletion date six months earlier. This has brought a national debate on how to mend the system.
A recent poll of more than 2,200 Americans, commissioned by the National Academy of Social Insurance, AARP, the National Institute on Retirement Security, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, asked people how they would bridge the funding gap. Most -85 % want to keep the benefits the same or increase them, even if that means raising taxes for some or all Americans. Only 15% said they would rather see benefits cut than pay higher taxes. As Tyler Bond, research director at the National Institute on Retirement Security, explained, “People are willing to pay more, not to get extra benefits for themselves, but to prevent across-the-board benefit cuts.”
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Popular solutions to fix Social Security
It implemented an innovative polling approach, where the participants were questioned about policy changes they would favor and finance. The result showed a deep consensus across party affiliation, income ranges, age brackets, and education levels. Following is the list of the most favored solutions:
1. Eliminate the payroll tax cap for higher-income workers: Today, workers and employers each pay Social Security taxes on earnings up to $176,100. Earnings above that amount are not subject to the tax. The survey found strong support for reapplying the payroll tax on incomes above $400,000. High-income earners impacted by this change would not get extra benefits, but it would help finance the program.
2. Increase payroll tax rate: Under the present scheme, the employee and the employer each pay 6.2% of wages toward Social Security. Increasing it to 7.2%, most of the respondents were in favor.
3. There were a series of demands made to better the benefits received by vulnerable groups: changing the cost-of-living adjustment formula to better approximate the inflation faced by older Americans, providing credits for those caregivers who leave work to take care of young children, and providing a “bridge benefit” for workers who have spent their careers in physically demanding jobs and retire early.
The option would cut benefits to retirees who were deemed to have higher incomes, such as singles making at least $60,000 in retirement income per year excluding Social Security or couples having $120,000 or more. Bond added that all told, such moves would do just more than cover the projected funding gap by a margin of 1% surplus.
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Strong public support for Social Social
The survey results align with decades of polling showing strong public support for Social Security. A separate report by the National Institute on Retirement Security found that Americans overwhelmingly value the program and want to ensure it remains stable for future generations. Bond noted, “People consider Social Security a really important program, and they want to make sure we’re spending enough to keep it strong.”
Confidence in Social Security increases as people approach retirement age, suggesting the closer people are to relying on the program, the more appreciation they have for it. Raising the retirement age or more heavily taxing the benefits were among other options experts proposed as ways to fix the system, but those did not prove to be popular with the people responding to the survey.
The point of the survey is clear: Americans will pay more to protect Social Security, but they want to do it fairly. With 2035 looming larger, the pressure is on Congress to find a solution that stabilizes the finances of the program while sustaining public confidence.
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