Social Security needs adjusting, and it will be done by this next U.S. Congress.
There are several simple ways to do it. Basically, the richest of the rich have to start paying into the system, a small portion of all of their income. In return, they have to get somewhat larger retirement checks than they do now. But there has to be a less generous formula to calculate their checks when they retire because they aren't really relying on Social Security. They're already very rich.
Instead of making the richest of the rich start paying into the system, Ed Case wants old people to work longer - until they reach 70 years old - before they can have their full Social Security retirement checks. This is because Case doesn't want a person who makes more than $200,000 a year to have to pay Social Security tax on any of their income over that amount. Seriously, I have the email directly from Case himself.
The hardest-working people must keep working until they're 70, but the richest of the rich should not have to pay more? What kind of Democrat - what kind of person - thinks like this?
Mazie Hirono disagrees, and that does it for me. She knows how simple and how fair the solution must be. She's been good for us in Washington, D.C., already. I'm voting for Hirono for U.S. Senate, and I have to say I've heard enough from people like Case.
Rick Tolin
Kihei
