"Policymakers have spent decades putting together alternative packages of tax increases and benefit cuts. All the options are known. But ... agreeing on a complicated combination of cuts and tax increases seems unlikely. So let's just go ahead and raise the tax rate by 1 percentage point each on employees and employers and raise the taxable earnings base to about $230,000 so that it covers about 90 percent of earnings. That should do the trick for the next 75 years.... If employer plans start to provide meaningful retirement income, we can make cuts in Social Security benefits down the road."  MORE >>