SS isn’t regressive
Norm Luther’s Nov. 15 letter was misleading or ignorant about Social Security fairness. Payroll taxes stop at the $118,500 level. People making more than that receive no credit or benefit any higher than that due a person paying at $118,500. In fact, a person paying in at $59,250 will get a benefit more than half that of the $118,500 wage earner or the $1 million earner due to “bend points” in Social Security that give lower income recipients a higher proportional benefit.
My question is: If we have people over $118,500 pay more, should they get a benefit that is proportional to the amount paid in, or is it just a tax on them for making more money? Social Security is still an earned-benefit system, not an entitlement system, with the exception of the bend points. If we tax at a higher rate and give no higher benefit, it turns Social Security into an entitlement system.
Social Security is fair right now. Everyone gets a benefit in direct proportion to payment, and lower-income people get a proportionally higher and possibly tax-free benefit. Nothing regressive about the system at all. Let the income tax system deal with progressive taxation.
Keith Hegg
Spokane