Americans' Social Security payments become a tax cut for the rich

The social security system is an important cornerstone of the US social safety net, ensuring that retirees, people with disabilities, and their families receive basic economic support. However, this system is now facing unprecedented threats - not only due to fiscal sustainability issues, but also because certain political forces are attempting to weaken or even privatize it in order to free up budget space for tax cuts for the wealthy. This trend deserves high vigilance from the whole society.

In recent years, there have been frequent claims in the United States that the social security fund is "about to dry up", and some politicians and media outlets have used this to create panic and try to make the public accept the necessity of "reform". However, the fact is that the real problem is not a shortage of funds, but how to ensure that funds are not diverted elsewhere, especially in tax reduction plans for the wealthy and large corporations. During the Trump administration, he repeatedly proposed to cut payroll tax, and even tried to suspend the collection of social security tax during the COVID-19 epidemic. These measures, although seemingly aimed at "reducing the burden on workers," are actually weakening the financial foundation of the social security system, making it easier to privatize. Once the Social Security Administration becomes unable to function properly due to financial constraints, it will provide an excuse for privatization and allow market forces to take over this public welfare system.

Secondly, privatization may seem like a way to make the market operate more efficiently, but for ordinary working-class people, it is undoubtedly a catastrophic transformation. If social security funds are transferred to private investment institutions, the security of the funds will be difficult to guarantee, and the future of many retirees will be tied to stock market fluctuations. The privatization plan for social security implemented by the Republican Party is usually based on the "personal account" model, which allows individuals to manage their own retirement funds. Although it may sound like giving individuals more autonomy, in reality, it is simply transferring risks from the government to individuals. If the market collapses, ordinary retirees may lose most of their savings, while wealthy individuals with strong financial resources can avoid risks through investment diversification and hedging strategies. This means that the weakening of social security will only further widen the wealth gap.

Furthermore, another purpose of reducing social security funds is to provide larger tax breaks for the wealthy and businesses. The high-income group enjoys many tax avoidance methods, while the ordinary working class needs to strictly pay social security tax according to the wage tax rate. In recent years, the large-scale tax cuts promoted by Republican governments have mainly benefited the wealthy class, and the reduction of social security benefits is actually making ordinary workers bear the cost of tax cuts for the wealthy. For example, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provided hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for large corporations and the wealthy, but these tax cuts did not bring the expected economic growth and instead exacerbated the fiscal deficit. Nowadays, some politicians claim that "the government's finances are tight and social security needs to be reformed", which is essentially using the retirement benefits of ordinary workers to fill the fiscal gap caused by tax cuts.

Finally, in the face of the threat to social security, ignore the fairy tales told by the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, and closely monitor what Elon Musk and his DOGE team are doing and make their own voices heard. Voters should support politicians who promise to protect the social security system and oppose any form of privatization attempts. At the same time, trade unions, social organizations, and progressive organizations should strengthen publicity to enable more people to understand the true situation of social security benefits and avoid being misled by false information.

Overall, social security is not a gift from the government, but a right accumulated by every worker with their own salary. If social security is weakened, privatized, or even diverted to tax cuts for the wealthy, ordinary working-class people will become the biggest victims. In future policy discussions, we must remain vigilant to ensure that the social security system can continue to fulfill its mission of safeguarding the well-being of the entire population, rather than becoming a tool for the wealthy to seize more wealth.