Americans disagree about a lot of things. But Social Security stands out as one area of widespread agreement. An AARP survey conducted in 2020 found that a whopping 96% of Americans support the federal program.
When it comes to how to fix Social Security, there's not as great of a consensus. However, you might be surprised by just how much Americans with different political views agree about some ideas. Here's one Social Security change that Joe Biden wants that you might like too.
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The biggest Social Security change Biden wants
In 2020, then-candidate Biden proposed several Social Security reforms during his presidential campaign. He called for a higher guaranteed minimum benefit. He pushed for greater payments for older Americans who had collected benefits for at least 20 years. Biden argued for a change to the metric used to determine annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs).
But the biggest Social Security change that Biden wanted was to increase the payroll tax cap. At the time, the payroll taxes that help fund Social Security only applied to wages of up to $137,700. Today, the threshold is $160,200. Biden proposed also applying the payroll tax to all income of $400,000 or more.
As president, Biden hasn't mounted a major effort to drum up support for the Social Security changes that were part of his campaign platform. However, he included a somewhat similar proposal to extend Medicare's solvency in his fiscal year 2024 budget where payroll taxes would be increased on income above $400,000.
Biden's proposal to increase the payroll tax cap to apply to income of $400,000 or more would go a long way toward preventing future Social Security benefit cuts. An analysis conducted by the University of Maryland's Program for Public Consultation (PPC) in 2022 determined that change would eliminate 61% of the projected Social Security shortfall.
A popular idea
Do you like this payroll tax cap increase too? If so, you're part of the majority of Americans who support the idea.
In addition to analyzing potential Social Security reforms last year, the PPC also conducted a survey to find out which changes were supported the most by Americans. Making more wages subject to the payroll tax was the most popular idea of all, with 80% of survey respondents favoring the proposal.
There was strong bipartisan support for adjusting the payroll tax cap. PPC's survey found that 86% of Democrats and 77% of Republicans favored the proposal.
It probably shouldn't be surprising that the idea is so popular. Another survey conducted in March 2023 by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research revealed that 79% of Americans oppose cutting Social Security benefits. The only way to avoid any benefit cuts is to increase revenue, which Biden's proposal would do.
There are other ideas for increasing revenue for Social Security, including raising the payroll tax rate and making the payroll tax cap apply to all income. Those changes, though, would affect more Americans than Biden's proposed change would.
Not on the same page yet
While Americans appear to largely agree on the best way to fix Social Security, their representatives in Washington, D.C. aren't on the same page yet. Some in Congress want to raise the full retirement age. Others want to reduce benefits for the wealthiest Americans.
If no changes are made, Social Security benefits will have to be drastically reduced beginning in 2034 based on the latest Congressional Budget Office projections. Perhaps the biggest factor that makes this scenario unlikely, though, is Social Security's overwhelming popularity among Americans. No senator or representative will want to face the wrath of voters that would be inevitable if steep cuts to Social Security benefits have to be made. That's one thing that nearly everyone in Washington would likely agree on.
