Trump Vows To Cancel Taxes On Social Security Benefits

In an hour-long press conference at Mar-A-Lago yesterday, President Donald J. Trump vowed to cancel income taxes on Social Security benefits. Of course, to do so, he will need a House & Senate controlled by Republicans. Virtually all elected Democrats at the national level are greedy, power-mad Socialists who dislike their fellow Americans and will vote against helping America’s senior & disabled citizens at a time when too many are eating out of food banks due to Bidenomics.

BRIEF HISTORY OF SOCIAL SECURITY TAXATION

From inception in 1939 until tax year 1984, Social Security benefits were exempt from federal income taxes. In 1983 the Social Security “Trust Fund”* was facing a financial shortfall. Based on the recommendation of the 1983 Greenspan Commission, Congress enacted legislation to require Social Security beneficiaries with income above certain thresholds to pay taxes on their benefits. Senator Joe Biden voted “yes.”

As originally enacted, this policy required beneficiaries with total income above $25,000 (single) or $32,000 (couple) to include up to 50 percent of their Social Security benefits in their modified adjusted gross income.

The rationale for taxing half the benefits is that the Social Security payroll tax is split 50/50 between workers and their employers. The workers’ half is included in their taxable income, whereas the employers’ half is not. Because half the contributions are taxed and half are not. THAT rationale flew out the window ten years later as greedy DC parasites lusted for ever more power. These thresholds are not indexed to inflation, which means the amount of benefits subject to income tax continually increased over time.

DC SWAMP’S GREED KNOWS NO END

Congress enacted a new policy in 1993 to tax up to 85 percent of benefits for beneficiaries with total income above $34,000 (single) or $44,000 (couple). These thresholds were not indexed to inflation, and remain the same in 2024. In other words, under the massive inflation caused by the Biden/Harris Regime the protected income figures were not increased.

The choice of 85 percent was based on convoluted calculations that made sense only to greedy politicians and DC Swamp creatures. Senator Biden voted “yes” to narrowly pass an "Omnibus Bill," which included an increase in the level of taxable Social Security benefits from 50% to 85%. One thousand dollars in 1993 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $2,174.22 today, an increase of $1,174.22 over the last 31 years.

*There is no such thing as a Social Security “Trust Fund.” During the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson, with the help of a Democrat House and Democrat Senate, closed the Social Security Trust Fund and stole all the money to fund his ego project: Johnson’s War which slaughtered 59,000+ Americans in a war the politicians refused to win. Since that time, all Social Security taxes have been deposited into the General Treasury where they are used for any number of Leftist causes which do not include paying Social Security benefits.