Why doesn't anyone come out and ask the politicians to raise the CAP to solve the SS problem?

[freshwest]

9. They have. May want to read the threads about bills by Begich and Sanders on this:

Dem Senator Introduces Bill To Lift Social Security’s Tax Cap, Extend Its Solvency For Decades

By Jeff Spross on Nov 16, 2012 at 5:15 pm

Democratic Senator Mark Begich of Alaska... Social Security, the government entitlement that provides support to seniors in retirement, the disabled, and other Americans, has long been in the cross-hairs of budget reformers. The program’s trust fund currently won’t be spent out until 2033, and after that it would still pay 75 percent of scheduled benefits.

Most of the proposed solutions to the shortfall involve cutting back benefits and raising the minimum retirement age. Both are deeply problematic; at its current level of benefits Social Security kept over 20 million people out of poverty in 2011, many Americans in demanding manual labor jobs already take early retirement and thus reduced benefits as it is, and lower-income Americans have not particularly benefited from the average rise in lifespans .

This week, however, Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) put forward a reform package that goes in the opposite direction, while still financially securing the program’s trust fund for roughly the next seven decades. The Washington Post’s Dylan Matthews laid out the details:

The Begich bill would lift the current payroll tax cap, which exempts wages in excess of a certain amount ($110,100 this year) from the tax. In turn, it would give high earners, who would pay more, additional benefits upon retirement, just as benefits increase as wages do for workers below the cap.

It also increases benefits across-the-board. While Bowles-Simpson and Domenici-Rivlin adopt a stingier “chained CPI” measure for inflation, Begich adopts “CPI-E,” or a measure that specifically captures inflation in goods that seniors buy.

Due to deteriorated health and other considerations, goods seniors buy tend to be more expensive than those younger people purchase. Begich’s CPI-E change would mean, effectively, a 4.5 percent benefit increase for the program’s beneficiaries, including not just seniors but their designated survivors and disabled Americans as well.

The Congressional Research Service ran the numbers back in 2010 and concluded that eliminating the payroll tax cap — while also paying out the new benefits to wealthier Americans in accordance with their new taxes — would eliminate 95 percent of the trust fund’s shortfall over the next 75 years.

Begich may not hit that goal exactly, depending on how the legislation is written. In particular, his change to CPI-E also lifts the overall benefit level, on top of the changes in CRS’ scenario. But his reform would probably come very close.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/16/1208701/democratic-senator-introduces-bill-to-lift-social-securitys-tax-cap-extend-its-solvency-for-decades/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021835303

Will the 29 Sanders-letter senators co-sponsor the Begich Social Security bill?

The most recent Social Security bill, proposed by Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, includes such enhancements as full cancellation of the payroll cap — making the Social Security tax a simple flat tax and not a regressive one — and improves the cost-of-living adjustment by indexing it to the items most bought by the elderly. All round, a very good bill.

This bill also goes on offense, putting a stake in the ground that says Social Security benefits should be enhanced, not just kept the same. I hope you can see the negotiating benefit of that.

The 29 senators who signed the Sen. Sanders letter are playing excellent defense — drawing a line that says No Cuts to the safety net and No New Tax Breaks for the rich. (With the Bush–Obama Tax Cuts set to expire in December, renewing them is without doubt a new tax break.)

Can we get the 29 senators to go on offense as well, and co-sponsor the Begich bill? You could ask them.

Here’s that list of Sanders-letter senators, the good guys in this fight. Note that Mark Begich, the author of the Begich bill, is an organizer:

Organizers:

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — [phone]
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) — [phone]
Mark Begich (D-AK) — [phone]
Al Franken (D-MN) — [phone]

Other signers:

Harry Reid (D-NV) — [phone]
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — [phone]
Jack Reed (D-RI) — [phone]
Sherrod Brown ((D-OH) — [phone]
Ron Wyden (D-OR) — [phone]
Patrick Leahy (D-VT) — [phone]
Ben Cardin (D-MD) — [phone]
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) — [phone]
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) — [phone]
Tom Harkin (D-IA) — [phone]
Jeff Merkley (D-OR) — [phone]
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) — [phone]
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) — [phone]
Patty Murray (D-WA) — [phone]
Barbara Boxer (D-CA) — [phone]
Maria Cantwell (D-WA) — [phone]
Daniel Akaka (D-HI) — [phone]
Tim Johnson (D-SD) — [phone]
John Rockefeller (D-WV) — [phone]
Daniel Inouye (D-HI) — [phone]
Tom Udall (D-NM) — [phone]
Robert Menendez (D-NJ) — [phone]
Carl Levin (D-MI) — [phone]
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) — [phone]
Joe Manchin (D-WV) — [phone]

http://americablog.com/2012/11/will-the-29-senators-who-signed-the-sanders-letter-co-sponsor-the-begich-social-security-bill.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251253882