The proposal John Boehner floated early in the week to fund the war in Afghanistan by raising the retirement age to 70 has produced howls of protest from Americans of all ages.

I feel both Republicans and Democrats are being extremely dishonest in the way they are orchestrating the debate about the alleged insolvency of the Social Security Trust.

How Come No One Mentions the $106,000 Cap?

The fact is that the government only charges social security tax on the first $106,000 of earnings. By eliminating that cap, Congress could make the Social Security Trust indefinitely solvent tomorrow. Just imagine, for instance, how much we could collect from the salaries of Wall Street CEOs.

By the way Social Security is a “flat tax” (the percent you are charged is constant no matter what your income). I thought the Republicans liked the idea of a flat tax.

I think there’s only one reason why neither Republicans nor Democrats mention the $106,000 cap:  namely the current agenda of both parties is to shift the responsibility for funding government away from the corporate buddies who put them in office – onto low income workers.