Congress Had 18 Years to Save Social Security. Here's How We Actually Do It.

By Tristan Arnold and Grace Johnson, Achilles Team

Social Security is projected to run out of reserves in 2032. If Congress fails to act, benefits will be cut automatically and across the board by at least 22%. These cuts will impact more than 60 million Americans, including retirees, surviving spouses, and children who lost a parent. Millions of working families planned their retirements around the promise that the benefits they earned would be there when they needed them.

This crisis did not appear overnight. It is the result of years of willful inaction. Senator Jim Risch spent 18 years in the U.S. Senate while Social Security’s financial outlook steadily deteriorated. Congress has had nearly two decades to guarantee the program’s funding - and done nothing. We don’t have 18 years more to wait.

The solutions are clear. What has been missing is the political will to act.

First, Fixing the Payroll Tax Cap

The biggest flaw in today’s system is one most Americans have never heard of. Workers pay into Social Security on their earnings up to $184,500 a year. Past that line, the payroll tax stops.

A teacher, a welder, or a nurse pays in on every dollar they earn, every payday, all year long. A corporate executive making a million dollars a year stops paying in around the second week of March, then takes the rest of the year off.

According to the Social Security Administration, ending that early cutoff would close more than half of Social Security’s entire funding gap. No benefit cuts. No raising the retirement age. And nothing at all asked of anyone earning under $184,500. That’s about 94% of American workers.

Second, Strengthen Benefits Where They’re Needed Most

Saving Social Security should mean more than simply avoiding benefit reductions. It should also ensure the program fulfills its purpose: protecting older Americans’ retirements after a lifetime of work.

Over 9.2 million Americans aged 65 or older live in poverty. This is absolutely unacceptable. Widowed women over 65 are far more likely to live in poverty than married retirees. Part of the reason is structural: when a spouse dies, Social Security benefits typically fall by about a third, while the poverty line drops by only about 20%. We are failing in our duty to take care of those no longer able to work for themselves.

How do we fix this? By raising the minimum benefit, and by raising survivors’ benefits for widows and widowers. These two policies together should do a lot of good for the seniors who need them the most.

Make Wall Street Contribute Too

Social Security was originally financed through payroll taxes because wages were Americans’ primary source of wealth when the program was created. In today’s economy, however, an enormous share of wealth is generated through investments and financial markets rather than traditional paychecks. Social Security cannot continue protecting every American’s retirement by drawing from an ever-smaller share of the American economy.

Capital gains are money made from stocks, bonds, and other financial assets. They are classified differently from income (money made from working; salaries, wages), and are often taxed at much lower rates than income. Since many corporate executives get paid largely in stocks, almost none of that money ever funds Social Security.

Whose lobbyists wrote that part of the tax code? No points for guessing.

Capital gains need to be taxed at the same rates as working Americans’ income. To make sure Social Security is funded, this should include a “payroll tax” for capital gains that, just like payroll taxes on income, would go to Social Security. This should solve the rest of our funding gap right here.

But don’t we want to make absolutely sure that Social Security funding is guaranteed forever? Yes. Yes we do. Adding a modest Securities Trading Tax of up to 0.15% on Wall Street trading - just $1.50 on every $1,000 - would have next to no effect on ordinary Americans investing for retirement. It would, however, ensure that firms executing millions of high-speed trades every day contribute fairly to the economy from which they make their billions.

At least a quarter of the revenue from this tax would go directly to Social Security, with more allocated if needed to close any remaining gap. Our financial markets depend on a stable economy and society. Because guaranteeing Social Security’s solvency is an essential part of that stability, asking Wall Street to pay 0.15% on a trade is hardly unfair.

Give Gig Workers a Fair Deal

Nearly 12 million Americans work as independent contractors as their main job, and millions more freelance or pick up gig work on top of a regular paycheck. Social Security is still funded almost entirely by taxes on wages, the way it was designed in 1935.

Unlike traditional employees, these workers pay both the employee and employer shares of Social Security taxes themselves, totaling 12.4% of their earnings. That places them at a real disadvantage compared to workers whose employers cover half of those taxes, even after the partial deduction the tax code allows.

Companies that rely heavily on independent contractors should contribute the employer share of Social Security taxes as they would for traditional employees. This would effectively reduce the tax burden on millions of self-employed workers while discouraging companies from misclassifying employees simply to avoid paying benefits; it would modernize Social Security for today’s economy without changing its basic structure.

Attack the National Debt at the Same Time

Lastly, the combination of equalizing capital gains and income tax rates and adding a Securities Trading Tax would likely reduce profit margins on the stock market. Wall Street will still be very profitable, but this may create some displaced investment demand. Accordingly, we propose making income from Treasury securities (U.S. Government debt) either federally tax-free or heavily discounted. This would funnel displaced demand into Treasury markets by effectively giving them higher returns. Increasing demand for Treasury securities, especially if we succeed in creating a fiscally responsible Congress that doesn’t need to borrow so much, (thus reducing new US debt supply) could drive down Treasury interest rates (the “price” of government debt), thus reducing the costs of future borrowing.

Washington Has Waited Long Enough

We can save Social Security without cutting any of the benefits our people have earned. The policy solutions already exist. They have been discussed for years by economists and policymakers across the political spectrum.

What has been missing is the willingness to act.

For 18 years, Senator Risch and nine Congresses have watched this fiscal cliff get closer. What have they accomplished?

Social Security is more than a government program. It is a promise between generations. Americans work, we pay into the system, and we trust that when our working years are behind us, our country will honor its commitment.

Ours is a good plan to protect and preserve that promise. If Jim Risch has a solution to Social Security that he has been sitting on for the last 18 years, now would be a great time to share it. If he doesn’t, he should explain this failure, as well as why he thinks he deserves a fourth term anyway, to voters on the debate stage. Todd Achilles is ready now - both to debate Risch, and to do the job he either can’t or won’t.

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Paid for by Todd Achilles for Idaho / J. Patrick Riceci, Treasurer. Copyright (C) 2026 Achilles for Idaho. All rights reserved.

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