Half of seniors rely on Social Security for AT LEAST HALF of their income. [View all]

[highplainsdem]

https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/policy-basics-top-ten-facts-about-social-security

Fact #7: Most elderly beneficiaries rely on Social Security for the majority of their income.

Social Security provides the majority of income to most elderly Americans. For about half of seniors, it provides at least 50 percent of their income, and for about 1 in 4 seniors, it provides at least 90 percent of income, across multiple surveys and the study that matches survey and administrative data.

I was talking, the other day to a former Democrat who'd become something of a conspiracy theorist in recent years and voted for Trump in 2016. Once he was told Trump's proposed payroll tax cut would wipe out Social Security by 2023, he suddenly became much more skeptical of Trump. I did tell him that Trump was claiming he'd replace the revenue from the general fund, but I added that there was no chance of getting Republicans in the Senate to okay a tax increase equivalent to 14% on everyone's gross income (to match employer/employee FICA). He agreed.


Democrats have to use Trump's crazy talk of eliminating the payroll tax, much more than they've used it so far.