Sanders v. O’Malley (regarding social security)

Sanders v. O’Malley (regarding social security) - http://ift.tt/1PK9Bne

Quote:

So far, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has struggled in his quest to become the liberal alternative to Hillary Clinton. The rise of Bernie Sanders has deprived O'Malley of his natural base, and in the wake of the Baltimore protests, O'Malley's less-than-beloved reputation among the city's black residents from his time as mayor has made it tough for him to make inroads with black voters… O'Malley and Sanders both fund their proposals by making income above $250,000 subject to the payroll tax. Currently, wages up to $118,500 are subject to Social Security payroll taxes, but wages above that point are not. That helps limit benefits, which are determined by applying a formula to one's average monthly earning over the course of their career. But it also means that rich people pay less as a share of their income into Social Security, Sanders goes a bit further on this point, and would also subject unearned income above $250,000 to the tax. That means that capital gains and dividends (which typically provide a lot of income to the rich but not much to the poor) would be taxed to fund Social Security, for the first time ever… They would both adjust benefits for inflation using CPI-E, an experimental inflation measure the Bureau of Labor Statistics devised which measures price increases for items bought by seniors, as opposed to goods bought by the public as a whole. CPI-E grows slightly faster than the current inflation measurement (largely because seniors are less likely to consume electronic gadgets and digital content) so this amounts to a benefit increase. It's intended as a direct response to proposals, such as that put forward by the Obama administration, to adopt "chained CPI," which is a method of calculating population-wide price inflation that most economists regard as more technically accurate than the current measure, which would effectively cut benefits…

I like having candidates to the left of Sanders on some policy issues it forces Sanders to push in both directions rather than just towards Clinton’s right of center economic and foreign policies.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1MMAdWm