Mitt Romney has written an editorial. It should prompt a national discussion. It won't.

[Marener]

That would be a HUGE tax increase for wealthier, not necessarily rich, Americans. Many small business owners would be decimated.

A self-employed person making 300k per year would pay about 16k more in taxes per year or $1300/mth. That is money they will never see, so it effectively raised their taxes 12.7%. That is absurd. For the same person working for a company, the employee would pay an extra 8k and the company would have to foot the bill the additional 8k.

This would kill the economy, by slowing wage growth, decreasing hiring and limit the number of small businesses. But hey, what do you care as long as you don’t have to pay, right? That seems to be the mantra of today’s youth and Democratic Party. Never mind the long term consequences.

It wouldn’t kill the economy. Don’t be such a drama queen.

 

[pknopp]

It was a noble first attempt. Hopefully President Vance creates version 2.

Vance won't be the nominee.

 

[martybegan]

Just a different use of what we already do. On the cost side you aren't adding in the billions of debt.

No it isn't.

Showing your spectrum riding inability to see things once again.

 

[pknopp]

It wouldn’t kill the economy. Don’t be such a drama queen.

Not as bad as the debt is going to.

 

[SweetTea]

It wouldn’t kill the economy. Don’t be such a drama queen.

Yes, it would be very detrimental to the economy. Don’t be so naive.

If you guys were really concerned about saving SS, you wouldn’t be so opposed rooting out the rampant fraud and abuse and you wouldn’t be handing out SS numbers to non-citizens.

 

[Crepitus]

It was a noble first attempt. Hopefully President Vance creates version 2.

It was flailing idiocy.

 

[martybegan]

It was flailing idiocy.

Then why did you government spending loving twats squeal like stuck pigs when it was in its prime?

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

A person making 300k already pays more. We have a progressive tax system. SS wasn’t meant to be a welfare system. Lower income workers already receive a higher replacement rate of their pre-retirement earnings than high earners.

SS was designed to be a safety net. It was designed to cover ALL Americans regardless of income level. Again, the premise was basic. You make more, you pay more. Everyone gets covered.

 

[marvin martian]

Vance won't be the nominee.

This should be good. Who do you think it will be?

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Ending the fraud in the public benefits system should handily deal with any shortfalls. Social security funds went to Somalia. Medicare was siphoned to Haiti. Stop it and there is billions.

 

[martybegan]

SS was designed to be a safety net. It was designed to cover ALL Americans regardless of income level. Again, the premise was basic. You make more, you pay more. Everyone gets covered.

Also you make more, you get more.

Capped in both contribution and benefit.

 

[SweetTea]

SS was designed to be a safety net. It was designed to cover ALL Americans regardless of income level. Again, the premise was basic. You make more, you pay more. Everyone gets covered.

And you make nothing and get nothing? Oh wait.

There is a cap on the benefit, therefore, there should be a cap on the income that is taxed. Common sense.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

Also you make more, you get more.

Capped in both contribution and benefit.

That can certainly be discussed if the cap gets removed?
What would you define as "get more"?

 

[pknopp]

This should be good. Who do you think it will be?

I've noted this before......now this is based upon Trump still being coherent in three years. It's a decent odd he won't be.

If he is, he will get behind one of his son's. Everything is about him.

 

[Polishprince]

Mitt Romney also wanted to put America's African Americans "back in chains" if you'll remember the 2012 campaign. Its why he was rejected.

BTW, Mr. Romney is retired and doesn't have to pay Social Security tax at all, as his existing nest egg is working for him, and he doesn't have a job.

 

[theHawk]

Mitt Romney: Tax the Rich, Like Me​

In 2012, political ads suggested that some of my policy proposals, if enacted, would amount to pushing grandma off a cliff. Actually, my proposals were intended to prevent that very thing from happening.

Today, all of us, including our grandmas, truly are headed for a cliff: If, as projected, the Social Security Trust Fund runs out in the 2034 fiscal year, benefits will be cut by about 23 percent. The government will need trillions of dollars to make up the shortfall. When lenders refuse to loan the money unless they are paid much higher interest rates, economic calamity will almost certainly ensue. Alternatively, the government could print more money, inducing hyperinflation that devalues the national debt — along with your savings.

Typically, Democrats insist on higher taxes, and Republicans insist on lower spending. But given the magnitude of our national debt as well as the proximity of the cliff, both are necessary. DOGE took a slash-and-burn approach to budget cutting and failed spectacularly. Europe demonstrates that exorbitant taxes without spending restraint crushes economic vitality and thus speeds how fast the cliff arrives.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/opinion/romney-tax-the-rich.html

The title applies to his belief the $176K income cap for social security taxes should be done away with.

I long opposed increasing the income level on which FICA employment taxes are applied (this year, the cap is $176,100). No longer; the consequences of the cliff have changed my mind.

The largest source of additional tax revenues is also probably the most compelling for fairness and social stability. Some call it closing tax code loopholes, but the term “loopholes” grossly understates their scale. “Caverns” or “caves” would be more fitting.

He goes on to say the "step up in basis" capital gains tax treatment for wealthy estates should be amended. Meaning, if you inherit an asset for which the owner would have faced a capital gains tax upon its disposal if the owner did so while still alive, you shouldn't be able to inherit the asset tax free.

The thread is not intended to start a debate on the details of Romney's recommendations. Rather, it is to highlight the impending shortfall in the SS trust requires the nation to have a serious debate over what to do about it. And soon.

So too we need to have a discussion about the debt, during which both higher taxes and lower spending are on the table. There are still more.

Many have said our elected representatives have failed us with the rise of partisanship leading to paralyzing gridlock. The result being critical issues are not being effectively addressed. I say we have failed ourselves by not electing serious and informed officials to represent us. A reflection of "we the people," who spend too much time entertaining ourselves and not enough learning about fact based solutions to problems that will bring this republic down if they are not resolved in an intelligent, thoughtful, forward looking way.

Sorry, but you lefties had your chance to elect old Mittens the Moderate. Instead you chose Bath House Barry the Hussein, a bastard homosexual Muslim socialist that hated America. The Hussein was very successful in “transforming America”, which helped Dems steal the election in 2020 and he even further helped destroy America by running the Biden Regime by proxy.

Now we have a country that is unrecognizable, decimated by rampant illegal immigration, tax and welfare fraud, inflation, woke ideology like transgenderism, out of control street crime, and more dumb wars. I doubt even President Trump can fix or undo all the chaos the Hussein created, it’s always easier to destroy than to create and build.

So now there will be no more Mitt Romneys. It will either be a radical leftwing lunatic hellbent on destroying America, or a true right winger to fix it.

 

[martybegan]

That can certainly be discussed if the cap gets removed?
What would you define as "get more"?

Like it does now, scales as you make more.

The whole point of the cap was that this was not a "tax", it was a contribution to quasi-pension fund, so the more you put in, the more you get back.

Obviously they wanted to limit disbursements, so they capped both contributions and outlays to a max salary.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

And you make nothing and get nothing? Oh wait.

Uh...that already happens for the most part. You can get spousal benefits if married, SSI, things like that. But most people who get those benefits have worked previously. If you can show no income earning over your lifetime, you won't get SS on your own benefit.

There is a cap on the benefit, therefore, there should be a cap on the income that is taxed. Common sense.

Remove the cap, and we can talk about the benefits. It would solve 70% of SS issues.
Common sense.

 

[Polishprince]

BTW, thank you to B. Hussein O, for sparing this country from having this sanctimonious piece of crap in the WH by schlonging Mitt royally in 2012.

One thing Obama did that I agree entirely with.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

DOGE took a slash-and-burn approach to budget cutting and failed spectacularly.

True.

Cuts that were reckless, irresponsible, and for many, deadly.