Raise the retirement age
For FRA. For people under 55, yes, but phase it in. So, us older GenXers would have to wait until age 69 for FRA SS.
50-54 increase to 69
45-49 increase to 71
40-44 increase to 73
35-39 increase to 75
Raise the cap
Most people seem to agree with that one, but rather, "remove" the cap.
Raise the 6.2% tax
SS FICA tax is actually 12.4%, but half is paid by the employer (or yourself if self-employed). Increasing that rate by 25% would make it 15.5%, split between employer and employee. That seems reasonable.
Only use 90% of the cost of living increases (time limited)
I actually think we should go in the opposite direction. SS COL increases are based on a CPI metric that doesn't correlate with the inflation experienced by senior citizens. I think SS increases should be indexed to CPI-e. As it is, it's like a yearly cut, in addition to the post-tax cut due to the higher amounts of SS income that are taxed each year.
If your income is over $150k, tax SS at 50%. (uhh!)
It's not a good idea to suddenly tax at such a high rate when you hit a cliff. Instead, just phase in a deduction of SS benefits with higher income. So, someone would start seeing a cut in their SS benefit when household income exceeds $50K/yr, and would phase out SS income completely at $150K/yr.
Early retirement increases would simply need to correlate with the FRA increase mentioned earlier, increasing it by the same number of years.
Someone else suggested adjusting benefits based on wealth. It's much easier build on to our existing system that tracks income. Also, we don't want to discourage people from saving when most people don't save enough as it is. Someone with an $80,000/yr pension may not have much wealth but should still see a cut in their SS benefit.
Other good ideas:
Eliminate spousal benefits. I'm NOT talking about spousal "death" benefits, but about the additional bonus SS benefits that a spouse can receive when they haven't worked to earn those benefits, simply because they are married to a living SS recipient. Redirect those funds to people that actually paid into the system for 40+ quarters! I do support death benefits.
Index the SS tax thresholds to inflation from when they were set in 1983 and 1993. Social Security after-tax "net" benefits are already being "cut" and have been for years, but most people aren't aware of how this is being done. The SS formula for determining how much of your SS benefits are taxed is NOT indexed to inflation, so that threshold has not increased since it was first introduced in 1983. For a single person, if your income combined with half your SS benefits exceeds $25,000, you have to pay income tax on up to 50% of your SS benefits. If it exceeds $34,000, you have to pay income tax on up to 85% of your SS benefits. $25K in 1983 is worth a lot more than $25K in 2018. Since your retirement distributions and SS benefits will be adjusted with inflation, but NOT the $25,000/$34,000 thresholds, a greater percentage of your SS benefits will become taxable as each year passes (for married filing jointly, the thresholds are $32,000/$44,000.) It's a built-in tax increase, reducing "net" SS benefits, hurting seniors further. The greater your combined income and SS/2, the more you will be affected by this up to a max of 85% of your benefits being taxed! It's absurd, and those thresholds should be increased to reflect inflation since 1983.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/people-who-saved-for-retirement-are-being-punished-by-social-security-taxes-2019-01-07https://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/05/08/this-33-year-old-social-security-rule-is-wreaking.aspxhttp://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/03/25/double-whammy-taxation-social-security-benefits.htmlhttps://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/issuepapers/ip2015-02.htmlThis bill would address the higher yearly taxation problem some by increasing the 85% taxable threshold.
H.R.860 - Social Security 2100 Act
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/860The 50% threshold isn't mentioned there, but this document states the 50% taxable threshold would be eliminated.
https://larson.house.gov/sites/larson.house.gov/files/Larson%20Blumenthal%20Van%20Hollen_2019%200918.pdfIt's not perfect because the new threshold would still not be indexed to inflation going forward.