John King, USA
The latest political news and information on the most important stories affecting you.
February 29th, 2012
08:07 PM ET
NASCAR's John King meets CNN's John King
CNN's John King speaks with NASCAR driver John King about his big win at the Daytona International Speedway.
About this Show:
Your daily destination for political news. Join John each night as he pulls back the curtain on Washington, cuts through the partisan noise, and gets to the bottom of stories that affect you.
John King, USA aired weekdays at 6pm ET. The final show aired June 29, 2012.
Any questions for John? Tweet them to @JohnKingCNN and he'll answer them Tuesday's at noon ET on CNN.com/LIVE
Right, Andy. You paid 7.5% up to $102,000 last year. Anything you make beyond $102,000 has no Social Security tax taken out. If it takes you 9 mnoths to get to $102,000, then I am assuming that you're annual salary is about $135,000. That means that your effective Social Security tax rate on your entire income is only 5.7%. Meanwhile, someone like me who only had about $2,000 taken out of my check over the course of the year still pays the full 7.5%. As one's income goes up, the effective tax rate goes down. That is the definition of a regressive tax. I have an aunt, for instance, who made approximately $700,000 last year as a doctor. Her effective Social Security tax rate is 1.1% because she still only paid $7650. In order for Social Security to work, it needs to be adequately funded. When people who make over a million a year are getting taxed at less than 1% while people who are making 1/10 of that are getting taxed at 7.5%, it's no wonder why the system is broken. I'm not talking about using a progressive tax rate on Social Security. However, we should at LEAST have a flat tax in place. And let's get rid of this misconception about how we all have our own separate accounts and that we get back what we pay in. If I have an account somewhere with money in it, I want to have control over that money. If I have no control over the money, then the money isn't mine. It's really that simple. Plus, the group that probably most deserves economic help in the form of welfare is the elderly who can't work anymore. I tire of hearing how the elderly can't afford their prescriptions and can't afford to eat right because they don't have enough money coming in. There is a simple solution to be implemented. The problem is, the upper class has us all so brainwashed about how Social Security is a good thing that we will never see this solution implemented.