It was implemented under the Amendments of 1983, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support to save a program very much running on fumes. Two of the major compromises were a multi-decade increase of the retirement age (for Republicans) and an increase in payroll taxes (for Democrats). The tax on benefits took effect in 1984 and was designed only to impact upper income retirees. Then Clinton’s Congress added a second income tier for taxation in 1993, and the income tiers have never been adjusted for inflation, so like the minimum wage it puts pressure on lower and lower income Americans the longer it goes unaddressed while the value of a dollar falls. In essence, the regressive burden is very much due to the failure of every Congress since that time to clean up the requirements.
To lay it at the feet of Reagan is…to put it mildly…overly reductive. Also you know damn well “fixing it” isn’t what Trump has in mind.
It was implemented under the Amendments of 1983, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support to save a program very much running on fumes. Two of the major compromises were a multi-decade increase of the retirement age (for Republicans) and an increase in payroll taxes (for Democrats). The tax on benefits took effect in 1984 and was designed only to impact upper income retirees. Then Clinton’s Congress added a second income tier for taxation in 1993, and the income tiers have never been adjusted for inflation, so like the minimum wage it puts pressure on lower and lower income Americans the longer it goes unaddressed while the value of a dollar falls. In essence, the regressive burden is very much due to the failure of every Congress since that time to clean up the requirements.
To lay it at the feet of Reagan is…to put it mildly…overly reductive. Also you know damn well “fixing it” isn’t what Trump has in mind.