Ex-Social Security administrator calls for raising cap [View all]
Source: The Hill
06/16/26 10:00 AM ET
Former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley argued that requiring higher-income Americans to pay more into Social Security is the solution to the program’s looming funding shortfall after a new report warned that beneficiaries could see a 22 percent cut in their monthly checks by the end of 2032.
In an interview that aired Monday on NewsNation’s “The Hill,” O’Malley said lawmakers should raise the cap on earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes rather than pursue benefit reductions.
“It’s only 6 percent of us that experience any benefit from the cap and an even smaller percentage — three or four — who benefit from scrapping the cap on income above $250,000,” he told host Blake Burman. “Most Americans, Blake, think it is unfair that wealthy people don’t pay the same tax rate as a custodian in a school or a teacher.”
The former Biden administration official pointed to the program’s current payroll tax cap, which exempts annual earnings above $184,500 from Social Security taxes. His comments come as lawmakers grapple with a new Social Security trustees’ report projecting that the program’s trust fund will be depleted in the fourth quarter of 2032 — one quarter earlier than projected last year. At that point, incoming payroll revenue would cover only 78 percent of scheduled retirement benefits.
Read more: https://thehill.com/business/personal-finance/5926016-omalley-social-security-fix/
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