If the stimulus was such a good idea, why don't we cut the social security tax in half, & stimulate every yr.?

Question

Right now, the social security tax is 6.2% on all income BELOW $97,500, and the tax is zero on all income above it.

So, for a family making $45,000/yr, the tax paid is $2790.

Half of that is $1395, roughly what they got in "stimulus" payments this year.

And, there won't be any "we can't give huge cuts to the rich" arguments, because nobody paid more than $6,045 in social security taxes last year.

Answer 1

Cut Social Security in half, you must be kidding?  It is not Social Security that should be cut it is Federal Taxes.  By sending out all of those rebate checks out to everyone even to people who do not normally file taxes tells me that the federal government is taking too much of my money for taxes in the first place.  I rather have permanent tax cuts.

Answer 2

Because the president doesn't screwup every election year.

Answer 3

Yes, payroll taxes are quietly ignored in this discussion.  

But...while you have looked at the middle class ($45000) and upper class (the cap is $100K+ this year), you haven't mentioned the elephant in the room, EIC.

The "rich" aren't really off the hook even with the cap.  At the same time the cap is dropping 6.2% off of their tax bill, they are getting hit with a higher tax bracket, phaseouts and AMT.  The difference is that officially, that's going into the tax bucket and not the SSA bucket.

Back to EIC.  

If I'm single and make more than $12,000, I don't qualify for EIC.

If I've got kids I can't afford, I can qualify.  The EIC pretty much offsets the payroll tax issue.  If I get EIC, I can whine that I "pay taxes just like anybody else" and then simultaneously think that the words tax return and refund have the same definition because I get all of my withholding back and then some.

Answer 4

In cutting social security tax, it means that those people who are on social security who are already having financial problems will have additional financial problems.  Most of the people who are on social security have one main choice:  they can either pay their food and utility costs or the portion of their medical care that medicare/medicaid doesn't pay.  It wouldn't any problem better, it would make it worse for all social security recipients and those on disability.  Then too, it would decrease the coffers to those who will be eventually on social security - would you like to be one of those who suffer because social security taxes are cut now?

Answer 5

what they should do is get rid of the soc sec wage limit - make it unlimited wages like the medicare tax part, so that social security benefits last a little longer for the people who will really need them - they've been talking about social security not lasting for decades but refuse to do anything to address the problem - also - let's get rid of the low cap gains tax for people with AGI above 100k - they are the only ones who have any money to invest anyway - plus stop congress from spending the social security money on other programs because the idiot president can 't balance a budget and keep giving too many perks to the rich people

Answer 6

What makes you think it was a good idea?