Protect Social Security; Numbers Show Lifting the Caps Works

Obama 2008: 'The best idea is to lift the cap;' Obama 2011... What Happened?

Social Security is strong. It is not a government piggy bank and it is 100% fully funded until 2036.

Social Security has been falsely interjected into a discussion about our nation's debt and deficit. Seniors have been threatened that their checks will not go out and that long term cut backs could include an extension of the retirement age and reductions in benefits. This is a false solution to a fake crisis.

It is simple to fix the long term concerns about Social Security: Lift the caps on taxable income for Social Security. The numbers show that it is the best way to ensure the viability of Social Security for the next 75 years. Lifting the caps is the most equitable way to strengthen Social Security because everyone in society fully participates.

Check out the calculations from the Social Security Administration here.

This is the mainstream position; a position on which then-Senator Obama was elected. He repeated over and over that, as President, he would defend Social Security. What happened?

Here's the record on then-Senator Obama's oft-repeated position on Social Security:

September 6, 2008, Speech to the AARP Convention, C-SPAN

"[John McCain's] campaign has...suggest[ed] that the best answer to the growing pressures on Social Security might be to cut cost-of-living adjustments or raise the retirement age. I will not do either."

October 30, 2007, Democratic Debate and Drexel University [PDF]

"Social Security is not in crisis; it is a fundamentally sound system... The best idea is to lift the cap on the payroll tax, potentially exempting middle-class folks, but making sure that the wealthy are paying more of their fair share, a little bit more."

September 6, 2007, Democratic Debate at Dartmouth College

Obama: I think that lifting the cap is probably going to be the best option. ... My personal view is that lifting the cap is much preferable to the other options that are available.

September 21, 2007, Op-ed in Quad City Times, Iowa

"I do not want to cut benefits or raise the retirement age. I believe there are a number of ways we can make Social Security solvent that do not involve placing these added burdens on our seniors."

November 11, 2007, Meet the Press Interview

"I said I will convene a meeting as president where we discuss all of the options that are available. I believe that cutting benefits is not the right answer; and that raising the retirement age is not the best option, particularly when we've got people who are still in manufacturing. ... I think that the best way to approach this is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like myself are paying a little bit more and the people who are in need are protected. That is the option that I will be pushing forward."

April 6, 2008, Philadelphia Democratic Primary Debate

"What I have proposed is that we raise the cap on the payroll tax, because right now millionaires and billionaires don't have to pay beyond $97,000 a year. Now most firefighters & teachers, they're not making over $100,000 a year. In fact, only 6% of the population does."

October 16, 2008, Obama Campaign Video

"The best way forward is to first look to adjust the cap on the payroll tax... What it does allow us to do is to extend the life of Social Security without cutting benefits or raising the retirement age."

 

Follow Rep. Dennis Kucinich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RepKucinich

Comments

[Binea]

08:34 AM on 07/27/2011

If it is not put onto the middle class.But..what about paying for it with a national sales tax ? One where the poor get enough money up front each year to offset the tax for them ?

[1logicalthinker]

02:54 AM on 07/26/2011

As a proud Green party member, whenever I receive any postage paid campaign literature from Democrats, I always return it with a hand-written note that says something to the effect, if you ever want to get my vote, you need more candidates like Dennis Kucinich. Go Dennis, I was glad to have campaigned for you.

[brainsurgery1]

05:58 PM on 07/25/2011

The tea party is merely a maniacal branch of the repubs: More than half (54 percent) identify as Republicans, and another 41 percent say they are independents. Just five percent call themselves Democrats, compared to 31 percent of adults nationwide.(from a CBS breakdown). It's the part of the repubs that let's them constantly distract and WAG THE DOG. Those who call themselves "independent" really mean Repubs hiding behind a shell game. Let's not allow such gamesmanship win out - let's renounce the Tea Baggers for what they are - Repubs who want to look like a majority but are really a very loud (clanging) few with the time and money to do the Repubs dirty work. They are not a legitimate cross-section of our citizenry.

[brainsurgery1]

05:46 PM on 07/25/2011

Dennis Kucinich is our best hope in 2012! We need to block vote - that is, the @80% who are not making millions or billions ought to vote together for the only meaningful voice for them in the wilderness. This country's government is supposedly based upon the majority rule. Why are we, the majority so seemingly helpless in the face of such a debacle created by the minority?

[scipio2009]

04:28 PM on 07/25/2011

Nothing wrong with lifting the caps; the only problem is folks seem to always fail to acknowledge that lifting said cap will, inherently, lift the PIA figure that benefits payouts are based off of.

[Bombadillo22]

04:16 PM on 07/25/2011

I’ve been wanting to vote for Dennis Kucinich since his 'Wake up America-the middle class is being ripped off' speech against neo-con-artists --one I found to be more rousing and profound than Obama's 'we are not red states and blue states but United States' at the Democratic National convention-- because we are most certainly being divided by Republicans, or morphing into them, as Obama compromises.

I'd be embarrassed to be a 'red state' or attend a tea party and want no part of their anti-government, corporatist fawning!.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv0smG7ptcM

[craigmart]

03:59 PM on 07/25/2011

It is shameful to see a democratic president willing to sell out on Social Security. We should not even consider making the elderly and disabled pay to balance the budget while the rich enjoy the lowest tax rates in decades.

[jhNY]

02:48 PM on 07/25/2011

He was just saying stuff to get elected. Just like now-- he's just saying stuff to get elected again. Concentrating on the contents of that stuff is to miss the point. The point is: to win elections.