Survey Finds Wide Support for Taxing Rich to Bolster Social Security

About 4 out of 5 Wisconsin residents in a new survey favor taxing higher-income Americans to support Social Security, reducing benefits for the wealthiest recipients and gradually raising the age for people to collect from the federal retirement program.

The report, released Thursday, is the product of a University of Maryland research program looking at six major topics during the 2024 election cycle. The six surveys conducted by the Program for Public Consultation (PPC) polled national samples as well as samples from six swing states in the presidential election, including Wisconsin. A previous report examined public attitudes toward abortion and reproductive rights.

The PPC uses online surveys that brief participants with arguments for and against various possible ways of addressing an issue — in this instance, reforms to the Social Security system.

The Social Security survey is based on forecasts that the retirement program’s trust fund that collects revenues and pays benefits to retirees will no longer be able to pay out full benefits by 2033, requiring cutbacks for all retirees.

Established in the 1930s, Social Security pays benefits to retirees through a payroll tax levied on current workers. Too few current workers paying into the program means it will fall short of the payments obligated for beneficiaries.

“Very large bipartisan majorities support four reforms to revenues and benefits that would eliminate 101% of the Social Security Trust Fund’s long-term shortfall,” the PPC survey report states.

Support was similar for the proposals in all six swing states in the survey as well as the nation as a whole, according to the report’s authors.

The proposals, their impact on the shortfall, and their support among Wisconsin survey participants by party, are:

• Subjecting income over $400,000 a year to the payroll tax, reducing the shortfall by 60%; supported by 85% of Republicans and 92% of Democrats. Currently, wages over $169,000 aren’t subject to the tax.
• Gradually increasing the payroll tax from 6.2% to 6.5% over six years, reducing the shortfall by 15%; supported by 85% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats.
• Reducing benefits for the top 20% of income earners, reducing the shortfall by 11%; supported by 90% of Republicans and 94% of Democrats.
• Gradually raising the retirement age, currently 67, to 68 by 2033, reducing the shortfall by 15%; supported by 89% of Republicans and 87% of Democrats.

Taken together, those four proposals would eliminate 101% of the trust fund shortfall, according to the report.

The design of the survey enabled participants to consider the collection of proposals in concert with each other, not just in isolation.

“While some of these proposals — such as raising the retirement age or raising payroll taxes — are not popular in themselves, when Americans consider the full picture, large bipartisan majorities support taking tough steps to secure the Social Security program,” said the Program for Public Consultation’s director, Steven Kull. “We were struck by how similar the Republicans and Democrats are on all these questions.”

In addition, however, large bipartisan majorities also favored some benefit increase, which would offset some of the gains, reducing the total savings to 78%.

• Increasing the minimum monthly benefit to $1,570 from the current $1,066 gained the backing of 70% of the Wisconsin participants (65% of Republicans and 77% of Democrats).
• Increasing benefits for people 85 and older by $100 a month was supported by 65% (58% of Republicans and 80% of Democrats).
• Increasing annual cost of living adjustments (COLA) was supported by 66% (62% of Republicans, 68% of Democrats).

Survey finds broad support for measures to bolster Social Security was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.