Ditch the income cap

I believe Evans Winter’s declaration that Social Security is doomed to collapse is just not correct. It is true that, because we are living longer and there are fewer people in the work force, something must be done. Right now the trust fund has a balance of $2.8 trillion. It is projected to be solvent until 2022 if nothing is done. By 2035, the trust fund would only be able to pay workers 75 percent of their benefits.

Workers currently pay 6.2 percent of their earnings to Social Security, up to an income cap of $118,500. Some proposals for increasing the trust fund include increasing the tax rate, lifting or abolishing the income cap, raising the retirement age, means-testing retirees, and changing the cost-of-living formula to reduce those annual adjustments that are currently based on the Consumer Price Index.

Increasing the tax rate, lowering the cost-of-living increases, and raising the retirement age would hurt the poorest earners. Their life expectancies are lower and many of them retire early due to poor health, thus reducing their benefit by as much as 30 percent. According to AARP and others, means testing would undermine the principle that benefits are an earned right. Lifting the income cap from its current level would help, but ending the cap on income altogether is the most sensible choice and would give the greatest return. This would mean every dollar of earned income would be subject to Social Security tax, not just the first $118,500.

It baffles me why there is an income limit at all. Why the government is providing this “welfare for the wealthy” just makes no sense. In my opinion we need legislation now that would do away with it. PATRICIA M. PHILLIPS

Little Rock