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John,
If Congress fails to act, both the Social Security and Medicare trust funds will begin to run short within the next 10 years. But there is a solution that does not involve cutting our earned benefits.
Today, Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is holding a hearing on the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act, legislation he introduced with the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-PA), which would require the country’s highest earners to contribute more of their fair share.
Click here to send a message to your senators and representative and urge them to co-sponsor and pass the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act today.
Right now, wage earners stop paying into Social Security after they earn $160,200 in wages in a year. Because of that artificial cap, while the vast majority of working people pay into Social Security on all of their income, the highest-income earners do not. In fact, those making $1 million in a calendar year stop paying into Social Security by the end of February.
The Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act would not only lift the payroll-tax cap on income over $400,000, it would also apply the tax to investment income, ensuring that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share into Social Security on all of their income each year. The bill would increase the rate that upper-income earners must pay into Medicare, too: from an additional 3.8% to an added 5% on all income above $400,000.
Finally, the Whitehouse-Boyle legislation would close a loophole that currently allows hedge funds, private equity firms, and some oil and gas companies to avoid paying Medicare taxes and the related Net Investment Income Tax when they disguise earned income as “distributed business profits.”
Let’s protect the future of Social Security and Medicare by making the wealthy pay more of their fair share. Write to your members of Congress right now and urge them to support the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act today.
Together, we’re fighting back against attempts by the right-wing to cut and privatize our earned benefits and ensure Social Security and Medicare are strong for generations to come.
Thank you,
David Kass
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund
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