History remembers Cato the Elder for closing most any speech — on most any topic — with the simple statement that Carthage must be destroyed. Well, we need a senator or two to borrow that technique and end with “The Social Security tax cap must be removed.”

Social Security’s solvency has been heading for trouble for a long time. For an equally long time, Republicans like to go on about “reform,” which is short for reducing benefits, extending retirement ages, or trying to kill or privatize the whole damn enterprise. You’d think that was the only option. Nothing says GOP like increased risk for the vulnerable and increased commissions for the financial sector.

Of course, there’s two ways to attack a deficit, and the other way is to increase cashflow. This is the solution that dare not speak its name for the GOP, since that sounds a lot like a “tax increase.” But as many of you know, here’s the thing: This is the singularly regressive tax in the U.S. tax code. It takes a larger chunk from working and poor Americans to give the wealthy a break.

The government stops collecting Social Security tax once your income reaches $184,500. People who make less than that pay this tax on every dollar they earn. People making millions pay that tax on an obviously much, much smaller percentage of their income. This result goes against the concept of  (the more you make, the more you pay) at the center of American taxation.

Removing the cap would still treat the rich better than a standard income tax does. Anti-cap arguments aren’t looking to add multiple Social Security tax brackets based on income levels. Removing the cap would actually make this tax a true flat tax. And still the right won’t hear of it, which betrays their lack of seriousness about retiree dignity, deficit spending, and the flat tax all at the same time.

Not that you couldn’t remove the cap and also take other measures. But removing the cap alone is estimated to fix 68% of the problem and add decades of solvency to the program. Just by removing this peculiar special treatment for the wealthiest.

A Predictable Plot Twist
The arguments for and against removing the cap have been entrenched for a long time now, but a new variable is entering the mix: the widening disparity in income. The inexorably increasing income gap in the U.S. is itself largely a logical result of the right-wing concerted lobbying and legislative efforts across the last few generations. Look at union participation and at the minimum wage, for example, and it’s clear they’re winning.

Now, rising inequality is worsening the bleeding for Social Security. Larger portions of income get funneled to the wealthy and super-wealthy, while wages for most stay relatively flat. So a greater percentage of American earnings avoid any Social Security taxation, thanks to the cap. And the resources for delivering benefits to typical working Americans get thinned out even more.

No Scruples, No Peace
You would think the wealthiest Americans would understand that pursuing policies designed to shovel more and more wealth to the top will eventually lead to the whole thing tipping over. And or pitchforks arriving at our gated communities. I can’t explain why today’s wealthy have lost the scruples that were largely present among the wealthy of the post-war America that so many think they yearn for.

We can’t wait for that crowd to get smarter. We have to defeat them at the ballot box and at the policy battlefield to maintain a modicum of decency for the working and retired.

Here’s a summary of a 2025 bill that would have kept the cap but raised it to (only) $250,000. No tax change for 91% of households while expanding benefits and gaining another 75 years of solvency. You never heard of it because it met its natural fate in a Republican-controlled Congress.

Social Security policy will affect almost everyone sooner or later. An active electorate educated on this topic and ready to roll for the midterms could help that GOP advantage meet its natural fate as well. Then maybe we could make some progress and roll back this mistake of a tax law, all while leaving the pitchforks in the garage.