Reply #16: Social security is now and always has been an insurance program

[Warpy]

and has never been an investment program. It wasn't designed as an investment program, only as insurance that would allow people with little or no pension to survive in their old age.

What made it a cruel one was Reagan who raised the tax SIX TIMES in order to rob the overpayment to disguise the disaster that cutting taxes on his rich cronies caused the Treasury.

The cure to keeping it solvent is to remove the laughably low earnings cap until the robbed funds are repaid and then to lower the overall rate to the combined 6-7% it should have been all along. That would have the added advantage of giving the well off that flat tax with no deductions they always claim they want. My guess is that they won't like it if they get it.

Remember, folks, no matter what silly people who repeat right wing memes say, it is INSURANCE. Repeat it loudly, repeat it often, and hope it penetrates the cement surrounding what they call their brains.