Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator from Vermont. I wish to add my support to our ranking member's remarks. At present, somebody making $110 million a year--and there are people who make $110 million a year in this country--will make the same contribution or less to Social Security as somebody making $110,000 a year in salary. At best, they will pay the same despite the fact that they are making 1,000 times more. At worst, they will pay even less into it because they have treated their income as capital gains and they have dodged the payroll tax on it. To me, that makes no sense, particularly when more and more of our national income is moving up into the top 1 percent, the top 2 percent, the top one-tenth of 1 percent. In fact, there has been a pronounced effect on Social Security's balances just from the increased income inequality. More and more of the income generated in the United States of America is moving to the wealthiest people, and that means the amount of income under $110,000 that is subject to taxation for Social Security is a smaller fraction of the total income package than it was before, which means there will be less income to support Social Security, and that is a significant part of why Social Security is underfunded and why it may only last for the next 18 years instead of longer.…”