I love most things Bernie does, but this is idiotic. Why are we talking about increasing benefits, when the system is going to have to cut benefits in just 7 years when the trust fund runs out?

I’m all for eliminating the tax cap, but those funds should be used entirely for stabilizing the system. The Boomers are already the richest generation in American history. Their children are poorer than they are. And each generation after is poorer still. We should be focused on ensuring that the future poorer generations can enjoy the same level of benefits that today’s Boomer retirees can get, rather than giving the wealthy Boomers even more money.

And before anyone says, “why not do both?” Because there’s finite money here. Every penny that goes to increasing benefits now is one less penny to secure the system’s long-term future. Removing the cap entirely and putting 100% of the money to extending program solvency would only extend the system’s solvency to 2055. It’s a good idea to do this, but removing the cap is not an infinite money glitch. There’s only so many dollars to be had. And frankly, the Boomers have enough dollars already. Let’s make sure Millennials and Gen Z will get the same level of benefits Boomers enjoy before we go giving Boomers even more money. When the Social Security trust fund’s exhaustion date has been extended to “forever,” then we can talk about raising benefits for existing retirees.

Sure, you can say, “let’s do both and raise other taxes,” but again, finite dollars. If we’re going to be raising taxes for benefits, I would rather those dollars go to Medicare for All rather than raising the Social Security benefits for the wealthiest generation in American history.