Any other elder gays here worried Trump will cut benefits?

Even if he does, OP, and gets Congress to agree with him, benefits will be cut for younger generations, not yours.

I would assume that a lot of his base in Flyoverstan are heavily dependent on such benefits. Not sure that would be a priority for his admin. He's going to go after the big soundbite issues (ex. Mass deportation) and do nothing about those either in the end, just like the wall that never materialized. Not to worry, OP.

I do think Medicare is in more danger than Social Security, but cuts will come to Medicaid first, as poor people tend not to vote. (And Republicans don't care about them, anyway.)

[quote]I would assume that a lot of his base in Flyoverstan are heavily dependent on such benefits

I would assume that Americans all over the country are heavily dependent on such benefits....even in ( gasp) NYC and LA.

MAGAts are all about cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

As long as benefits are cut for the undeserving, i.e. immigrants, blacks, browns, gays, etc. MAGAts will be fine with having their benefits cut as well.

Trump is not getting elected. Period. Let's get the vote out and remember the down ballot races too.

We’re facing a massive fiscal crisis, regardless of who wins the election. Republicans decided to cut taxes and increase spending, especially on wars. Democrats balanced their spending with new revenue, but didn’t want to alienate their middle class voters. So we all pay far less than we should. Unfortunately, one of our bigger spending items is interest.

Maybe we grow our way out, or the dollar’s status as reserve currency protects us. Even so, it’s a terrible failure of our system that blocks major change.

[quote]In 1983, Congress increased the full retirement age (FRA) from 65 to 67, a change phased in over the course of 33 years. This phase-in just ended, with the FRA now static at age 67 for individuals reaching age 62 in 2022 or later.

While there's not chance that they'd take such a long approach today to changing the retirement age, I would doubt that they'd increase retirement age for anyone hitting 67 prior to 2042.

They could solve the social security problem by simply raising (or eliminating) the cap on wages without removing the cap on benefits - it's 168,600 for 2024 and $174,900 for 2025.

I also think that the 6.2% social security tax rate should be adjusted so that no social security taxes are taken on the first $15K (poverty level in the US), then slowly increased from 0% to a standard rate (currently 6.2%) until you hit about $45-50K (which is the middle class threshhold). To compensate, the cap should be raised immediately from $175K to $300K, then continue to rise each year as it currently does.

[quote]The Social Security program was established in 1935, with the payroll tax kicking in on Jan. 1, 1937. The employee rate was 1% at that time. The rate has steadily risen over the years, reaching 3% in 1960 and 5% in 1978. The employee portion increased from 6.06% to 6.2% in 1990 and has held steady at that rate ever since except in 2011 and 2012.

Finally, I'd consider raising the rate from 6.2 to 6.3-6.4%. This would be a nominal increase ($360 on $180K income).

No matter what your feelings on "tax the rich" and "pay their fair share" if you think that taxing people who make more money to absurd levels won't empower rethugs and other conservatives into power, you're a fool. Tax policy requires a much more thoughtful - and slower - approach.

Incremental is fine, overall, I agree r8. And we don't need to get to absurd levels. But letting the Trump tax cuts expire on schedule in 2025 is a good start, and then gradually get to a top marginal tax rate more like 50%, again top rate not on everything, would be reasonable. Corporate tax rates are always weird because there's a question how much gets turned into higher prices. Capital gains are complicated too, but keeping the rate low seems to generally mean a "be nice to rich people" tax structure. Bumping those up would probably be fine, despite the howling and shrieking from the servants of the rich.

`r1 I am not so sure about him waiting on the next generation to change medicare. He wants as much money in the coffers so he can steal as much as possible while he still can. Someone who investigated how much he stole the 1st time around said they believe he stole 1.7 billion of taxpayer money.

r9 - social security is different from general income taxes.

You create a LOT of unintended consequences with tax policy.

For instance, capital gains were made on income which had already been taxed the year it was earned. When you increase capital gains taxes you reduce the incentive to hold investment for longer periods - and thus create a higher churn-and-burn mentality (obviously, more complicated).

Also, depending on how long the investment was held, capital gains are not adjusted for inflation over the time the asset was held. Let's say you invested $10K in 2000 would be worth $18K today. If you sold the a $10K investment today for $20K, you'd be taxes on the $10K gain. However, that $10K would be worth $18K today when adjusted for inflation, so your "real" gain is only $2K.

^^^just to clarify my point in r11

If the purchasing power of your $10K from 2000 is equivalent to $18K in 2024 and you sold your investment for $20K, but are taxes at 50% on the gain or $5K, you'd net $15K from the sale of the investment OR $3K less than your $10K would be worth.

It would be financially irrational to hold an investment for longer periods of time, putting a lot more pressure on short-term investments and paybacks which makes longer-term investment by both companies and individuals less attractive.

You want companies to invest long-term rather than focusing solely on short-term gains and stock prices.

Live more, worry less, OP. This time, it's really unlikely.

"Corporate tax rates are always weird because there's a question how much gets turned into higher prices."

Make the law read the higher taxes can't be passed on in the form of higher prices. Make the taxes come out of corporate overhead, i.e executive compensation, benefits and other perks.

Let's finally get serious about the tremendous gap between executive compensation and regular worker bee pay.