A Stitch in Haste

A question I posed to Robert Reich ("the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley") in response to his question: "Why is HRC stooping So Low?"

"That [Social Security] cap is now close to $98,000 (it's indexed), and the result is highly regressive."

Surely you know that Social Security as a program (and it is a program, not just a tax), is not regressive but in fact highly progressive.

A taxpayer who pays twice as much tax over her working career than another taxpayer receives far less than twice as much in benefits. That is unarguably the progressive redistribution of income.

And that's before the federal income taxation of Social Security benefits, which is itself radically progressive. So in fact Social Security is "double-progressive" (or "progressive-squared").

So I ask you -- why are you misrepresenting the issue?

We'll see whether I receive an answer.