Rich couples are collecting over $100,000 in Social Security. A new proposal would cap that.

Funny how every reform starts with trimming earned benefits instead of taxing billionaires properly again

This has to be a coordinated effort. Within the last few days, The Washington Post, CNBC and now CBS News (and possibly others I haven’t had access to) have written topically identical articles about this fictional threat to Social Security. It’s an attempt to disparage the program, likely ahead of a planned assault on entitlement programs. They’re creating a problem out of thin air. The maximum Social Security benefit at age 70 is $5,181/month. That only results if a beneficiary delays claiming benefits past their FRA (currently age 67). To attain this benefit, you must have reached or exceeded the withholding cap for at least 35 of your working years. The max benefit and max withholding are actuarially linked. There are approximately 1,000,000 recipients who are receiving the $62,172 maximum annual payment. Out of 75,000,000 recipients. That’s 1.3%. Orient as common as the topic implies. To actually achieve the alleged $100,000 amount, two married lifetime high earners would each have to attain individual 35 year or longer work histories where they met or exceeded the cap. We’re talking unicorns here. These articles also imply that the existing cap and the progressive nature of the benefits calculation doesn’t restrict extreme payments. edit: math

>Although that represents less than 2% of the roughly 56 million people 65 or older who get Social Security Ok, so this isn't really that scandalous. >the CRFB's analysis projects that the share will grow over time, given the annual cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits and as a growing number of Americans reach retirement age. Ok, so more Americans are going to *need* more money as costs rise over time; not exactly Earth shattering. >Capping Social Security payments at $100,000 for couples or $50,000 for single older Americans would save as much as $190 billion over a decade and close at least 20% of the program's solvency gap So, it would cap retirees' income, as expenses continue to rise, and it *still* would only scratch the surface of keeping the program sustainable. $100k per year for two older people, who are likely to have healthcare expenses, isn't even that extravagant. In a few decades, it will be even less so. I think we need to be looking at other solutions. cough cough tax the (actual) rich cough cough

The max payout is like ~~$3k~~ $5,181 per month per person for someone retiring at age 70, so yeah, I guess a couple would hit around $100k/year. WHO CARES WHEN THERE ARE **TRILLIONAIRES** ON THE HORIZON Edit: updated based on the social security website: [https://www.ssa.gov/faqs/en/questions/KA-01897.html](https://www.ssa.gov/faqs/en/questions/KA-01897.html)

What a bullshit article. SS benefits are already capped at a level that’s far from ‘rich’. This is a reduction in benefits, plain and simole

They’ll do anything except tax billionaires

$100,000 a year is not 'rich' in many places. They want to do anything other than make the super wealthy pay their fair share.

They paid for it. Jesus Christ

Hot take but I don't it should matter that they are rich. If they paid into Social Security, the are entitled to it.

Considering the max per person is around 70k now, that’s just penalizing people who are married. Assuming both of them maxed out their SS contributions for the careers which is fairly unlikely. Seems to me if they paid in, that’s what they should get out.

This is really dumb

Rich couples paid in far more than they will ever receive. SS is not a tax. It is a forced retirement savings plan that politicians now want to steal.

Making $100,000/annual - “You’re rich enough!!” Making $1million annual- “It’s not as much as you think!! I worked hard for it!”

Tax the f****** rich people who have more than everyone else and stop cutting earnings on people who worked for them. WTF is wrong w this country.

Or raise the corporate income tax from 21 to 30% instead.

They paid in, let them collect. BUT raise the cap on wages subject to the social security tax so they pay on all their wages like the rest of us plebes

They are going to erode this program into nothing by the time anyone born after 1980 gets to eligibility

God damn they'll do anything to avoid just collecting social security taxes fairly.

Benefits of over $5,000 a month great. They paid in it’s theirs. Married couple over $10,000. Average for couple $3,000. Hope it covers the increase in energy prices from the data centers. They are trying to put them all over Oklahoma and I bet many going to be hurt by the cost increase.

Eliminate the payroll tax cap instead. BTW, the SS cost of living adjustments never keep up with the actual rises in the cost of living.

this is complete c***. just tax billionaires

Hahaha “grow over time with annual COLA updates…” please. My wife’s brother got his COLA adjustment and it was like $163 a month. It wasn’t even enough to pay for an increase in Medicare. But you can run for Congress stay in office forever and insider trade. Sounds like the adjustments need to be made somewhere else.

Considering Trump’s inept handling of the economy, I’m not convinced $50K per person is “too much.” Are we all saying it should go to Elon instead? To Trump’s war of choice instead?

$100k is a lot of money but those couples definitely aren't rich. These days you need a $100,000 income to get an apartment that cost $2,700 a month

I probably don’t understand this well enough, but in this case, these folks paid in to the system. They may not need the money, but it’s their money. Maybe the government could stop wasting all of our other tax dollars on bullshit wars & ballrooms, and use some of that to help solve the insolvency issue.

That's also nice but tax the rich

What exactly is fair? Say I deposited 4x as much in the bank as my neighbor. Is it unfair that I then withdraw 4x as much as my neighbor? This article is implying $8,000 month is too much to collect in Social Security. The average retiree only collects $2,000 monthly. The benefit calculation is the same for both. How is it fair that the person who paid 4x social security tax not collect 4x social security benefits?

Just raise the cap from $179k to $4million in SS taxable income. That would solve all the SS problems. Tax the gdam rich!

How about we tax the ultra rich instead of shorting payments. In some places, it takes 100K for people to live.

wtf

One thing that is not being mentioned is that if a person or a couple is pulling in that amount after retirement there is a very high chance that they had a well paying job/ career which may have had its own retirement benefits. Not to mention any 401ks, Roth, or TSP. So that 75k-100k a year is just extra on top of any other withdrawals taking placing from retirement plans. Some also get pensions. If you contribute to social security then you should be able to benefit from social security income when you retire regardless of financial status.

if rich people paid in and that's the benefit that they deserve to get from the amount they paid in, then they should get it.. but 100 K should be the high-end limit And billionaires should not have a cap

*Everyone* should benefit from government services, even the well-off. There's this strange idea that only the exhorbantly rich billionaires should gorge themselves on government welfare, while everyone else should suffer! If a well-off person paid into government services, they should receive those government services, and trying to cut off people because they're only well-off instead of exorbitantly rich makes zero sense. Worse, it sometimes makes a trap where increasing the amount makes you no longer get government benefits, as a result lowering your benefits in a giant hole that makes it so you're disincentivized from doing better.

Rich starts with an M or a B

Instead of putting a cap and risking the door opening for social security gutting and restrictions, why not just tax 100% of it back?

Who r these asshats? If I pay in, it should pay out. How about raising the income cap and let people making $300k a year keep paying like the rest of us. And stop with the ‘ny husband from 30 years ago can collect on my social security just because he was smart enough not to marry the bimbo he cheated on me with until he was in his 60s’

It isn’t an entitlement program if you start treating it like another tax. If you start treating it like a tax it will lose support. If they contributed to it out of their paycheck, they earned that money. It isn’t right to come back later and take it just like they want to do for us young people. Stop taking it from paychecks if they don’t want to pay it out.

I don't care that people who did well in their working life can receive a little more when it comes to social security retirement benefits. **It's the ridiculous cap on paying social security income taxes** (your contributions prior to retirement) **that screws everyone else.**

Social security isn’t an investment fund, it isn’t a 401K. It’s insurance. Like all insurance, there is no expectation of getting “out” as much or more as you put in. No one who still makes more than say, 5X the median household income “in retirement” from their dividends and investment returns should be allowed to collect from a fund set aside to keep old destitute seniors from dying in the gutter by the millions.

Ok, they worked hard paid into the system. Why shouldn't they get their benefits? What's the cap going to be one million in your 401k and no social security? If that's the case we're all fucked!

When do we storm the Bastille?

Is that entire country just a grift?

Idc who gets what from social security. The rich need to be taxed!

How about we raise the f****** cap on social security contributions so people making over $184k actually contribute their fair share instead of pocket watching the retirees who are getting the benefits they paid for?

Rich people pay more into social security, so they get more back.

I don’t have a problem with that if they stopped caping the amount that is contributed per year. A lot of people make way more than 184k per year.

Wasn't Social Security originally designed to help disabled and blind people or something. And for old people who were not responsible with money to get some at retirement?

but hey at least all those people who depended on snap and such were kicked off it for "leeching"

Better to let the first 20k not be subject to iSS taxes then raise the cap to 1 million. It isn’t fair that a McDonalds worker pays on 100% of their i come but someone making 250k pays on less than half. I know the argument is benefits but who really needs it more? I was able to contribute significantly to my 401k in part because I wasn’t taxed on my entire income. The rich get richer…

Fine. It's not great, but it will have very very little impact on anyone. This might be a couple thousand people across the country. But let's remove the cap on taxable income for SS first. You want to get solvent, that's a super easy (and fair) way to start.

Just get rid of it already and replace it with a UBI so it impacts everyone equally if they want to change it instead of creating rage.

Good. There ne3ds to be for the future. And no taxing billionaire won't fix it either

Could we just initiate a complete phase out plan for social security as we know it and transition to a tax advantaged 401k program similar to the TSP?

Cap? How about completely eliminate.