Social Security Income Cap: $106,800

The current Social Security income cap is over one hundred thousand dollars. What does that mean to you? If you make less than $106,800 per year you will be paying in to Social Security out of every pay check for the entire year.

That is not a big deal if you make, say $107,000 a year. You would only have an extra $200 in your pocket at the end of the year. What if you made $34,000,000 a year? Alex Rodriguez does, and based on an hourly wage he hits the cap after 6.5 hours of ball playing. Tiger Woods hits the cap after two hours of golf. Paris Hilton, on the other hand, has to do whatever it is she does for just 18 hours to hit the cap. For the rest of the year these three are FICA free. And, the average working stiff?

The median annual household income is around $50,000. There are approximately 80% of us who make less than $106,800 per year. That means that about 20% have a FICA deduction from their pay checks for only part of a year. That amounts to a raise in pay for those who, arguably, need it the least. Why am I even discussing this you may ask? Go ahead, ask!

From a recent AP news report: "The leaders of President Barack Obama's bipartisan deficit commission launched a daring assault on mushrooming federal deficits on Wednesday, proposing reducing annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security, gradually raising the retirement age to 69 and taking aim at popular tax breaks such as the mortgage interest deduction."

Nowhere in that "daring assault" do I see anything about eliminating the Social Security income cap. Obama's deficit commission, it would appear, is bipartisan in name only. They are taking the typical Republican stand of shafting the middle class in favor of the rich and powerful. I don't know why I would be surprised, and I am not. I am just disgusted!

On the subject of reducing cost of living increases it would seem that the commission isn't even keeping up with current events. The COLA has been eliminated by Congress for 2010 and 2011. That means that Social Security checks will essentially be reduced for millions of our fellow countrymen and women who are already hurting. There is another grand "Let them eat cake!" moment for you.

I have no delusional fantasies that contacting our elected "leaders" with our Social Security concerns would do us any good, but hope springs eternal. Or, so they say.

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