If You Are A Baby Boomer - the real reason YOU SHOULD BE FURIOUS over CPI cuts:

[customerserviceguy]

161. I stopped doing taxes in 1990

And I never had to do any calculations for anyone drawing a taxable income and Social Security since then. I did know about means testing through the higher percentage of Social Security being used in figuring how to tax this once untaxed income. I do recall that part of the "logic" of the 50% inclusion of Social Security benefits was that half of a person's benefits came from their own taxed wages, the other half came from their employer and was not income-taxed to the employee at the time it was "earned". As you can see, that logic went out the window in 1993.

But I can still do math.

In any case, even if a wealthy individual had 85% of their Social Security benefit of whatever amount included in their taxable income, and they were in the renewed top tax bracket of 39.6%, that means they'd still keep nearly two thirds of that money. You can't argue that is insignificant.

Also, do you disagree with my contention that we need to find some way to limit the amount of the maximum benefit if we are going to raise the cap significantly, or eliminate it entirely? Under present law, more money paid in by the FICA tax payer means more money eventually coming to him or her when calculating the monthly benefit. That's why I say that it should be done carefully.