It’s actually very simple to fix Social Security & Medicare, but no one will propose it or vote for it. Here’s a dozen things that should be done now, and anybody who grosses under $250,000 & disagrees with this has been duped by the GOP into believing their false rhetoric:

1) Remove the cap on earned income subject to Social Security & Medicare taxation. It’s time wealthy people lost a slight bit of their wealth for the common good since we all live in the same country, and they can afford it.  It’s not like charity as it benefits hard-working middle class earners who pay the bulk of taxes anyway.  The current cap is appx $168,000, which is sad.

2) Raise the “early retirement” option to 65 & only getting half of your Full Retirement Age benefit then, and raise the Full Retirement Age to 70 & phase it in over 5 years for those under 55 starting now, no delay.

3) Cap benefits at $36,000 a year no matter how much you’ve paid in and reduce benefits for those who have over $50,000 in AGI & slowly phase it out over that figure so that those who have over $80,000 AGI get zero.  This wasn’t meant to be a retirement plan, but social insurance for those in need with little to no other income.

4) Raise the income limit on which Social Security benefits are taxable. This will lose a little revenue, but it’s the fair thing to do. Only couples who gross more than $80,000 ($40,000 for singles) on their non-SS income should have to pay any taxes on their SS income.

5) Raise the taxation rates of Social Security & Medicare from 6.20% & 1.45% to 8.00% & 2.00% respectfully. This will be a slight 2.35% increase in taxes overall per person, but will generate a ton of revenue for the programs.

6) Pass a law that the Social Security Trust funds are to be kept secluded & can’t be borrowed ever for any reason.

7) Change the survivor benefits rules to also require survivors to wait until 65 to collect and under the same rules as others, which is 50% at age 65 & 100% at age 70. They can currently collect at 60, which is 6 to 7 years earlier than others now.

8) Scrap the Railroad Retirement Board & merge it into SSA and offer the older RRB emoployees early retirement packages & buyouts. It will save a ton of money in the long run. Bring those employees into the SSA for now and don’t make any new hires until the surplus of labor quits or retires at the expanded SSA employee pool.

9) Require people to pay FICA taxes for 30 years (or 1,560 weeks) to get Social Security benefits. It’s currently only 10 years, which is ridiculous.  It should be at least 30 yrs as most people are working by the time they’re 22, which would mean eligibility at 52, which is 13 yrs less my proposed early retirement age

10) Make it more difficult to get disability payments. If you can do any kind of work, you shouldn’t be able to get it.

11) Get rid of “crazy checks”. Lots of freeloaders on that list.

12) Lower SSI payments for those under 65 and phase them out entirely over a period of 5 years. People should have to carry their own weight at working age. Get rid of welfare.