General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Workers have been paying higher social security taxes than necessary for 30 years. In 1983, [View all]The US government's bond rating was dropped one level, but the result (surprising unless you subscribe to Modern Monetary Theory) was US bond yields actually went down (effectively, a lower interest rate).
The dirty truth Wall Street doesn't want the public to know is that the US government will always be able to repay it's debts because Congress can create money on demand (see Article II, Section 8 of the US Constitution about coining money). There might, depending on the situation, be some inflation as a consequence, but the capability is always there.
Many people, Ben Bernanke included, actually feel we don't have enough inflation right now, which is allowing corporations to sit on huge piles of cash rather than investing it to increase production (and thus employment). So a little more inflation might actually do us all some good.