The obvious solution to the Social Security shortfall is to eliminate the income cap on the tax, which is currently around $160,000. Doing so admittedly would do some damage to the widely held perception that Social Security is a standard insurance program, based purely on consumer payments and actuarial statistics, but that’s only an illusion, so who cares?
Biden has shown a willingness to address the income cap, but only for people earning over $400,000 per year. Why that number? It’s a relic from the Obama years. It bears no relationship whatsoever to public perceptions regarding who is rich and who is middle class. It doesn’t bear any relationship to anything, as far as I can tell.
There is no obvious reason why a poor or middle-class person should pay a higher rate of FICA tax than someone making $399,999 per year. This number needs to go.