As Millionaire Earners Stop Paying Into Social Security for the Rest of 2024, New Polling Shows Americans Want the Wealthy to Pay Their Fair Share

Today, Social Security Works and Data for Progress released new polling showing that voters overwhelmingly reject Social Security cuts, as well as the idea of a closed-door “fiscal commission” to determine Social Security’s future. Instead, they want Congress to raise taxes on wealthy Americans to protect Social Security.

Currently, Social Security contributions are capped at $168,600 and people do not contribute on their wage income above that amount (unearned investment income is also exempt from Social Security contributions). That means that people making $1,000,000 a year are about to stop paying into Social Security for the rest of 2024.

In an op-ed about the polling, Social Security Works President Nancy Altman and Representative John Larson (D-CT) wrote that:

“We need to provide the 70 million Americans who pay into the system and rely on these benefits with the security to know it is solvent and working for them — and they deserve a direct answer on how Congress is going to address it. For more than 40 percent of them, Social Security is the only retirement plan they have. That’s why — across party lines — Americans are so adamant about fixing, maintaining, and enhancing Social Security, not cutting their hard-earned benefits.”

Key results from the polling include:

• 92% of voters, including 94% of Republicans, reject cutting Social Security to reduce the national debt.
• 71% of voters want Congress to protect Social Security by increasing taxes on wealthy Americans.
• 70% of voters, including 71% of Republican voters, oppose the creation of a commission aimed at cutting Social Security, Medicare, and other programs.
• 70% of voters think the future of Social Security should be decided through the regular lawmaking process in Congress, not through a new closed-door commission.