"I am not in favor of lifting the cap"

okedoke.

Like I said, we have one candidate left who reps the middle class.

Realistically, why should I stop paying FICA at roughly $100k each year if there's a shortfall?

I think removing the cap and installing a floor would be better for our population and the economy than almost any other measures they could take.

The only reason there's a 'cap' on benefits is because of the cap on contributions. I can't see why high income people would oppose lifting the cap, considering they'd probably end up getting more out of it then they put in.

least not called that.

For example, the first $20k or $25k of everybody's earnings would be exempt from FICA.

:thumbsup:

(I don't see why this is so difficult for politicians.)

The best she can say is that the problem isn't as large as others make it out to be, but even she hasn't said that the current system will last forever (meaning greater than 50 yrs). I've looked at her website and beyond the 401K plan tax credits (which is a seperate matter from the tax fund itself, as she's not using the trust fund to supply these tax credits) I really don't know what her plan is. She says "fiscal responsibility" but she doesn't outline her sufficient criteria for when we've reached that point. Furthermore she doesn't even want to talk about the contingency plan for what she plans to do if this "responsibility" is not sufficient to fill in the gap (other than have another commission to discuss the issue of course). She really seems to be kicking the can down the road (to my generation) on this issue

We can barely afford our lattes and designer firearms!

As the payroll wages of the "bottom 90%" continue to lag behind and the CHASM between them and the top 2% gets broader and deeper, the FICA TAXES ON THOSE PAYROLL WAGES also go down. This is the ol' "War On The Middle Class" ... but even that meme is misleading. It's a "war" on the working class - cheap labor - the commoditization of human beings.

If we want to kill two vampires with one silver bullet, raise the federal minimum wage to a LIVABLE WAGE!

It really shouldn't require a rocket scientist to look at the history of the federal minimum wage and see the starvation of Social Security. Every dollar increase in the federal minimum wage includes a $0.15 increase in Social Security revenues.



Now ... one of the best measures of the widening and deeping chasm between the "haves" and the "have-nots" is the Gini Ratio. As it increases, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Please NOTE the correlation between the minimum wage and the Gini Ratio.



If you take a look at the Wage Statistics for 2006 (latest available), you get a good idea how MANY workers are paid the LEAST and how FEW workers are paid the MOST.

Never heard of them before, so did a quick wiki read.

Very telling that the more peaceful countries (both in terms of international relations, but also internally in terms of domestic violence) have lower gini coefficients. They also have national health care.

You wouldn't happen to have a wage statistic graph for Japan, would you?