Obama's Useless Social Security Tax Hike

This bit from the Cato Institute sums up the problems with Social Security and why Obama's tax hike doesn't really help ...

 ...like, not at all: "As we know, Social Security will begin running a deficit — paying out more in benefits than it takes in through taxes — in just nine years, by 2017. Of course, in theory, Social Security is supposed to continue paying benefits after 2017 by drawing on the Social Security Trust Fund until 2040, after which the Trust Fund will be exhausted. In reality, the Social Security Trust Fund is not an asset that can be used to pay benefits. Any Social Security surpluses accumulated to date have been spent, leaving a Trust Fund that consists only of government bonds (IOUs) that will eventually have to be repaid by taxpayers. Therefore, in looking at Social Security’s looming crisis, what really counts is the program’s cash-flow solvency, which turns negative in 2017.

"Senator Obama’s proposal would do very little to change this. Most people earning more than $250,000 per year receive the vast majority of their income in forms other than wages or salary. In fact, according to the IRS, only a little more than $1 billion in wages were earned by people with more than $250,000 in wage income. Assuming standard wage growth in the future, Senator Obama’s tax would generate barely $50 million per year. That would not even push back Social Security’s cash-flow insolvency by an additional year."