Why didn't Obama lower payroll tax rate but raise cap on income taxed by it? [View All]

[yurbud]

to make it revenue neutral?

That would have been more than acceptable, even positive, to progressives and in the past Obama himself has even said that SS has no problems that couldn't be fixed by raising the cap.

For those who don't know how the Social Security tax works, it's a flat tax on the first $109K or so of your income, so anything you make above that is not subject to the tax. A higher cap would mean you could lower the rate for everyone.

Did Obama even try for this?

If not, it seems like he or the GOP wanted it so they could later say that Social Security isn't taking in enough money and therefore benefits must be cut, undermining the public confidence in the program and weakening it to the point that fewer will protest the next time the push to privatize it is cranked up.