Social Security has been a controversial program for years. Some have thought that reining in Social Security's costs was vital to the sustainability of the program. But now, others believe Social Security should expand to cover more situations.
In the following video, Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool's director of investment planning, goes through some of the latest proposals. Among them are plans to increase cost-of-living adjustments, add payments to cover paid medical leave for up to 12 weeks at 66% of income, and even expand payments under Social Security for divorced spouses, widows and widowers, and certain children. Dan notes that paying for the expansions gets complicated, with proposals including raising or eliminating the wage cap on Social Security taxes, boosting the current 6.2% rate on payroll taxes, or imposing a new surtax on high-income taxpayers. Whatever the outcome, Dan concludes that Social Security will remain controversial for the foreseeable future.
