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Them using this money in the general fund is not as simple as that. This is not a program that is intended to support general government spending.
Yet, that is exactly what has been done. Without the ss receipts we would never have able to both reduce the tax rates for the rich and simultaneously spend almost as much on the military as the rest of the world combined.
When the government uses this money, they are not simply taxing it away and spending, they are creating an account payable or new debt here. They still have to pay that money back.
Not if the GOP gets their way, they want to cut payments to the people that paid those taxes. In short, they are trying to find ways to welch on their debt.
You want to treat FICA as FIT here.
Nope, FICA is part of the total tax that the working class have to pay on their total income, in addition to FIT.
You are claiming it goes into the general spending budget without accepting that it only creates a debt to do so. Lowering FICA on anyone only increases the debt incurred.
Of course, that is why the cap needs to be raised.
Treating as a general spending fund without a cap or making it progressive is the same as a HUGE increase on the wealthy who already pay a very progressive FIT and telling them that on top of the government spending all the money they put into retirement for themselves, they also have to fund everyone else's retirement because they managed to make money.
If the wealthy had been paying taxes that were adequately progressive there would have been no need to spend the SS receipts. This debt allowed the rich to enjoy 30 years of tax breaks, so it is only right that the debt should be repaid by eliminating the tax breaks for the rich.
They made more money by providing less pay to the workers and moving jobs overseas.
The working class therefore have no obligation or incentive to vote in November to continue their tax cuts.