Problem one: Corporations don’t pay their fair share in taxes, they are greedy with excessive profits. Assuming that is an actual problem
Problem two: Social Security is in fiscal trouble and must be made sustainable. A very real problem.
Solution: impose a 4% payroll tax on employers up to Social Security taxable wage.
This allows Social Security to be sustainably solvent for the next 75 years and beyond due to a growing trust fund, although 8% of the gap between spending and revenue remains in the 75th year.
Or
Apply the 4% tax to all wages and Social Security is essentially solvent permanently.
These calculations are from The Reformer, An Interactive Tool to Fix Social Security provided by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Modifications could be made for the self-employed and very small businesses.
In a short time the 4% just fades into an ongoing expenses, modest price changes may result, even pay changes in some cases, but critically a major social problem has been dealt with and employers are permanently part of the solution for retirement income security.
And we can stop complaining about greedy corporations.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
SS has been funded the same way since the beginning, that is putting excess revenue into special treasury bonds during times of no deficits, high and low.
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SS has nothing to do with the deficit. When there was a revenue surplus the government sold treasure bonds to the trust and used proceeds to run the government.
If it had not done that transaction other bonds would have had to be sold to fund the deficit. The federal deficit is excess spending over all tax revenue. That spending is not caused by SS even now as trust assets are being used to pay benefits along with interest on the trust and redeeming bonds.
Are the bonds owned by the Trust along with all other bonds issued an obligation- debt of government, yes. The SS trust is government accounting for sure, its debt owed to a sub account of government, but it does not create or add to the deficit.
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Bottom line…
“Today, it is relying on a cash infusion from the Treasury to pay full benefits.”Riedl’s point is technically correct. But in this sense, Social Security is no more a cause of the deficit than any other holder of U.S. Treasuries, be it Wall Street or the Chinese government.”
“Going forward, the trust fund surplus will be drawn down as an aging population claims benefits, and as the U.S. fertility rate continues to decline, which means fewer workers are coming along to pay taxes into the system.That already is starting to happen. In fiscal 2018, expenditures exceeded revenue (including interest on investments) for the first time since 1982. Social Security took in $912 billion in fiscal 2018 and spent $991 billion. The difference – $79 billion – came from repayment of interest on those Treasury notes. Some conservative policy analysts point to that payment as evidence that Social Security is a cause of deficits, since the $79 billion payment came from general revenue.”
“We can call that $79 billion an interest payment on past borrowing – fine,” said Brian Riedl, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. “Social Security in the past ran annual surpluses and lent that surplus money to the Treasury. In those years, the existence of Social Security reduced the federal budget deficit. Today, it is relying on a cash infusion from the Treasury to pay full benefits.”Riedl’s point is technically correct. But in this sense, Social Security is no more a cause of the deficit than any other holder of U.S. Treasuries, be it Wall Street or the Chinese government. “Government needs to raise a certain amount of money unless it balances its general fund,” said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group.“If it doesn’t do that, it issues bonds – the only question is, who buys them?” said Altman.
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1N64GL/
Who you gonna believe?
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The whole idea of building a huge surplus in the SS trust fund has led to misunderstandings and mistrust in the system. The money was spent merrily for years and now it’s time to pay the piper. We were overtaxed for Social Security while building the fund. A true pay as you go system attempts a smoother model. It was great for the politicians to spend while the excess was coming in but now not so much.
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The tax increase on corporations is already baked in for other tax budget items. You’ll have to figure another way for Social Security.
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I prefer Trump’s proposal to use the money instead for tax cuts for the businesses, so we can create more jobs. I understand it will likely result in around a 22 percent cut in social security but the economy will be better so most people won’t really feel the cuts. Americans are tired of deficits and are ready to sacrifice
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Your kidding of course. Not sure a better economy will help the 70 million people receiving a Social Security after their benefit are cut.
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Not kidding at all. As a MAGA Republican, we are pro-capitalist and dedicated to reducing the size of the welfare state. Increasing taxes to pay for social security works against both objectives. Americans are tired of the status quo and want real leadership. It is the same thing with President Trump’s immigration and tariff polices. As patriots we accept that it may hurt economic growth and cause higher inflation, because ultimately it is for the greater good in the long term, preserving American culture and way of life. Cutting social security is a long term play, a short term sacrifice to help future generations and not saddle them with an unsustainable deficit
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Care to expand on what American culture and especially way of life? You do realize like it or not America is part of a large, complex global economy and political world and we cannot ignore that.
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By the way, Social Security is not part of the federal deficit.
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I just love a good joke!
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THE CLAIM: SS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DEFICIT AND NATIONAL DEBT
In January 2023 Instagram post from left-wing pages Occupy Democrats and Being Liberal said the following:
“Dear Republican Party, if you take our SS, I will bring a lawsuit against all of you for all the money taken from MY paychecks”. SS has nothing to do with the deficit or the national debt. You created that fiction and we’re not falling for it.”
Fact checkers rated it FALSE and it was taken down.
Economic experts said SS, which has run an annual deficit since 2010, uses bonds issued by the Treasury to pay out benefits. The government must borrow money from the public to repay these bonds, which contributes to the federal deficit and national debt.
Howard Gleckman–senior fellow Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center: “SS is a pay-as-you-go system, meaning that SS taxes are collected via payroll taxes on current workers and used to pay all current beneficiaries. Leftover funds are then deposited into the SS trust fund.”
According to Gleckman from 1984 to 2009 SS ran a surplus. That surplus was borrowed and spent by the rest of govt. and, in exchange, SS got special Treasury bonds it kept in reserve to redeem in the future.
Since 2010, according to Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at American Enterprise, SS redeemed those bonds as it has been running an annual deficit. When the federal government repays those bonds, it must borrow from public funds to do so.
Biggs: “Thus, if SS runs a deficit of $1 this year, it redeems $1 of trust fund bonds, and the federal govt. borrows $1 from the public to repay those bonds. This in turn increases the unified budget deficit , which covers the entire federal government budget, and the national debt on a dollar-for-dollar basis.”
Who says SS has nothing to do with debt/deficit?
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OR…
Social Security Does Not Add To The Federal DeficitTeresa GhilarducciSenior ContributorForbes Magazine
“But Social Security can’t, by law, add to the federal deficit. Medicare and Medicaid can, but not Social Security. Social Security is self-funded.”
“It is correct to say that Congress added to the deficit, not Social Security . The deficit rose substantially because of the 2017 tax cut, which reduced total revenue by 5% and revenue from corporate taxes by 35%.
And because it must balance its books, Social Security is prudently funded. It collects revenue and saves for expected costs. Currently, Social Security has a $2.8 trillion trust fund built up by the boomer generation paying more in taxes than needed to pay current benefits. The trust fund is a vital way workers save for retirement. With tax revenues and earnings and principal from the trust fund, Social Security is estimated to be solvent until 2034. After that, if it doesn’t get more revenue Social Security will only pay 77% of promised benefits. Social Security can’t add to the deficit because it pays for itself. If revenue falls short, benefits are cut.”
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Recent edition of Forbes tells us that payments to current recipients exceed the amount coming into the system. Thus the Trust Fund which has $2.7 trillion in its coffers, has to use a portion to make payments to recipients.
The system can payout forever as it is a pay-as-you-go system but without the Trust Fund it apparently cannot make up the difference which is why we hear that worst case a beneficiary takes a haircut in 2033. I suspect they will make changes along the way to fully fund the system and nobody comes up short.
Recently the Trust Fund had to supply $40 billion–if Congress was running a surplus it could have replaced that from the surplus. What has to happen is Congress borrows the money thus adding to the deficit which exceeds $1.5 trillion.
If health and retirement costs are growing faster than the economy then we have a problem. If you can’t balance a budget with the super hot economy we are told we have then when will it be done?
We have a spending problem not an income problem. We will add to it by passing the college loan debt onto the working folks by increasing the deficit even more as just one small example.
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Tax Policy Center
US taxes are low relative to those in other high-income countries (figure 1). In 2021, taxes at all levels of US government represented 27 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with a weighted average of 34 percent for the other 37 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Six OECD countries (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ireland, Mexico, and Türkiye) collected less tax revenue than the United States as a percentage of GDP. Taxes exceeded 40 percent of GDP in eight European countries, including Denmark, where taxes were 47 percent of GDP. Those countries generally provide more extensive government services than the United States does.
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Isn’t that exactly what we want–low taxes–we get to keep the $ we worked for–we get to spend the $ we earned–we get to make our own decisions about our life without too many bureaucrats screwing it up–we get to travel this great country on gas from fossil fuel without gas taxes being thru the roof–the price we pay for freedom is well worth it–if folks like all the services they will violate the borders of the countries Mr. Douglas has listed–right now millions have come here and millions more want to and that tells you something.
When 750,000+ leave California for Arizona/Nevada/Texas/TN/Florida and many other locales there is a message there. Raise those taxes–defund the cops–spend $24 billion on the homeless over 6-years but have no measurement of it doing any good–that’s CA and it’s got that large budget deficit and a porous population.
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California. Nobody goes there anymore. Its too crowded.
No, that isn’t exactly what we want–low taxes- yadda, yadda, yadda.
“Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
Yes, we do need -some- regulation. We do need some infrastructure. We even need some welfare.*
It’s a balancing act, and the more urban we get, the more money, and regulation, we need. That’s what elections are for.
There is an alternative to welfare.”Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons?””With nearly two million people behind bars at any given time, the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world.”Apparently images are no longer allowed, but the U.S. is literally off the charts. More than six times the average incarceration rate of other countries.The definition of insanity.
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Taxes should be abolished because all the revenue is just wasted. Police and Military should be volunteers like the Founding Fathers intended. Everyone should homeschool. If you have a good 4×4 vehicle, you don’t need roads. Medicare and Social Security are just fraudulent welfare programs. Local churches are much more efficient at taking care of the old and sick. Let’s abolish all taxes and Make America Great Again!
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No, Richard. He’s not kidding.
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why would I be kidding? Trump is leading in all the polls. The majority of Americans clearly want a strong leader who is not afraid to make hard decisions to save our country, like cutting social security and Medicare, suspending the constitution, and replacing any disloyal federal employees or military officers with real patriots, thus abolishing the deep state. Trump was the only one who had the balls to pull us out of Afghanistan, and will be the only President brave enough to abandon NATO and let China finally have Taiwan, so there will finally be peace. I think you fail to realize that America is finally on the cusp of a real transformation. It may be painful for some groups but real Americans are resilient and independent. There are plenty of retirees that can be more self sufficient. Remember victory gardens? And many can go back into the work force. And multigenerational housing is actually a good thing.
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I think you may need your own planet.
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