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His Social Security 2100 Act would raise the payroll tax cap on Social Security contributions. (The current cap is $127,200.) Under the Larson bill, wages from $127,200 to $400,000 still would not be subject to Social Security payroll taxes. But any wages above $400,000 would now be taxed at the standard FICA rate.
Larson's plan also raises FICA payroll taxes by only 1 percent, phased in over a 25-year period. The congressman points out that, for a worker making $50,000 a year, nine weeks of his proposed payroll tax increase is equivalent to the cost of a Starbucks latte. By combining these two measures, Larson's bill would — as its name suggests — keep the Social Security trust fund solvent through the year 2100, without cutting benefits.
Poll after poll suggest that Americans of all political stripes support reasonable revenue-raising measures to keep Social Security solvent. Yet congressional advocates of Social Security "reform" never mention these simple solutions, insisting that any remedy include harmful benefit cuts or — worse yet — privatizing Social Security. Cutting benefits now to avoid future cuts is disingenuous at best and indicates that solvency is not the primary goal.