Unlike most
Republicans and a growing number of Democrats in Congress, the Labor Party opposes
privatization and has a plan to make improvements:
SCRAP
THE CAP
Make EVERYBODY
pay the same Social Security tax. Social Security is funded by a 6.2 % payroll tax that
both workers and employers pay. This tax is only paid on wages up to $72,600 per year. If
all people and their employers paid the social security tax on ALL their earnings,
approximately 38 billion dollars per year extra would go into the Trust Fund. More than
enough to solve any problems, more than enough to improve Social Security.
LOWER
THE RETIREMENT AGE
By scraping
the cap we can ensure Social Security’s financial viability and put things back the
way they were. The same "saviors" of Social Security raised the retirement age
to 67 a few years ago. A higher retirement age especially hurts women and people of color
who are less likely to have any other form of retirement income. LOWER the
retirement age back to 65.
TAX
EMPLOYERS
NOT PROVIDING A PENSION
RAISE the
employer tax on any employer that does not provide a retirement plan for their employees.
Social Security was set-up to be one third of a persons retirement program, the other
parts being savings and an employer paid pension plan. One half of all retirees would be
living in poverty if they didn’t get Social Security, mostly because their employers
never provided a pension plan. These employers should be punished by paying an additional
tax.
NO
PRIVATIZATION
There must be NO
INVESTING any of our money to the stock market. This is a program for disaster. Even
if a portion of the Trust Fund is invested, what will happen when the market drops. We
would end up paying higher taxes to make up what was lost.
