America’s Seniors Can Count on Hillary Clinton

[jeff47]

54. Nope, she isn't. She proposes a means-tested "bonus" for low-income people.

Meaning those who meet the means test get more money.

...Which makes it very easy to declare Social Security a "welfare" program, and then we can "innovate", just like with welfare!!

unless something is done, I see the day where politicians are going to have to consider some unthinkable adjustments to SS or there will be automatic cuts -- already in the law -- should the trust fund fall into a deficit position.

The error in your analysis is the large size of the trust fund has always been a temporary measure to handle the retirement of the Boomers.

The Boomers did not have enough kids, so the Greenspan commission recommended raising taxes (HORRORS!!!) and creating a large trust fund to pay for the retirement of the Boomers.

The plan has always been to spend the entire trust fund on the Boomers, because later generations had more children (so far), solving the inverted-pyramid problem.

Unfortunately, merely increasing the cap does not solve the entire problem

Actually, it does. Capture the percentage of income that Social Security taxes captured in the 1970s, and you solve the problem....and that does not even require completely eliminating the cap. Just raising it to around $250-300k.

See, the concentration of wealth over the last 40 years means much more income is being made above the cap than in previous generations.