Instead of Capping Social Security Benefits, Tax the Rich and EXPAND Social Security
For decades, Wall Street billionaires have plotted to cut our earned Social Security benefits. Now, they have a new scheme: The so-called “Six Figure Limit.” This would cap Social Security benefits at $50,000 a person, or $100,000 per couple.
The billionaires behind this proposal claim that no one needs that much income in retirement—but we’d love to see them try to live on $50,000 a year in NYC, Boston, or San Francisco.
And there’s a big catch: These numbers won’t keep up with inflation. So while this cap would currently impact a tiny number of people, it would hit more beneficiaries every single year. Ultimately, the Wall Street billionaires would achieve their real goal: Transforming Social Security into a flat, poverty-level benefit.
Right now, the amount that the ultra-rich pay in is capped. As more and more people recognize that the way to make Social Security stronger is to scrap that cap, billionaires and their allies are calling for a new cap on benefits.
Billionaires and their allies are trying to build support for this terrible plan. The editorial board of the Washington Post, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, enthusiastically endorsed it. Supporters of the plan claim it’s about generational fairness and taking on the “greedy geezers”—but they never mention that it’s younger generations who would suffer the biggest benefit cuts.
As Social Security Works President Nancy Altman told CNBC:
“It’s younger people who really would be hurt by that proposal, because gradually it would hit more and more people and go to lower and lower levels.”
And she told the LA Times:
“The $100,000 amount will continue to erode to the point that it is a subsistence level benefit unrelated to prior earnings, just as conservatives have been advocating since 1936.”
The way to stick it to the rich who won’t rely on their Social Security benefits isn't with another cap―it’s to make them pay their fair share!
Social Security is an earned benefit that workers have paid into throughout their careers. Rather than cutting benefits, we should expand them to reflect the reality that seniors face rising costs for healthcare, housing, and basic necessities. Expanding Social Security would lift millions of older Americans out of poverty and provide economic security for all.
The billionaires are misleadingly calling this scheme a “six figure limit” but it’s actually a $50,000 limit—that would soon cut benefits for millions of Americans due to inflation. We’re fighting back on Capitol Hill and in the press to make sure this billionaire scheme doesn’t gain support.
Billionaires are terrified of paying their fair share, so they want to cut Social Security benefits for the middle class instead.
They claim this is about “fiscal responsibility” and “generational fairness”—but this is a manufactured crisis designed to undermine one of the most popular programs in American history. The same billionaires who avoid paying their fair share in taxes want to balance the budget on the backs of working families. They protect their own wealth while demanding seniors accept less.
Tell Congress: Tax the rich, don’t cut Social Security!