Robert Smith: “The Senate finds that-- (1) financing for Social Security Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) is…”

“The Senate finds that-- (1) financing for Social Security Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) is provided primarily by taxes levied on wages and net self-employment income. The level of these tax rates is set permanently in the law at the rate payable today; (2) more than ninety-five percent of the work force--an estimated 148.2 million workers in 1998--is required to pay Social Security taxes; (3) Social Security taxes are paid both by employees and employers and the self-employed on earnings up to a maximum amount of $68,400 in 1998, the amount increasing at the same rate as average earnings in the economy; (4) the Social Security tax was first levied in 1937 at a rate of 1% on earnings up to $3,000 per year; (5) the rate in 1998 has risen to 6.2 percent--an increase of 620 percent, and a majority of American families pay more in Social Security taxes than income taxes; (6) in his State of the Union message on January 27, 1998, President Clinton called on Congress to "save Social Security first" and to "reserve one hundred percent of the surplus, that is any penny of the surplus, until we have taken all the necess…”