Not just Democrats: The surprising Republican support for ending the Social Security tax cap

In the United States Congress, a Republican senator has emerged as a leading voice calling for the cap on wages subject to Social Security payroll tax to be lifted.

Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio has teamed up with Elizabeth Warren, a Senate Democrat from Massachusetts, in a bipartisan effort to secure the future of the U.S.’s Social Security program.

What is the current Social Security payroll tax cap?

A benefits scheme with just over 71 million recipients nationwide, Social Security is funded by workers’ payroll taxes, which are currently levied on earnings up to $184,500. Income above this cap is not subject to Social Security taxes, which are set at 6.2% for employees and 12.4% for self-employed workers.

However, amid warnings that the Social Security Administration (SSA) won’t have the funds to pay out all of its benefits by the early 2030s, Moreno and Warren say the “common-sense solution” is to remove the cap.

This, they say, would provide a crucial boost to the SSA’s funds. What’s more, it would prevent earners over the $184,500 limit from contributing a smaller proportion of their income than workers whose wages are under the cap.

“A no-brainer”

In an op-ed published in the New York Times in June, Moreno and Warren said: “We don’t agree on everything, but here’s one thing we do agree on: Congress must act now to save Social Security for generations of Americans to come.”

The senators continued: “Why should a middle-class nurse pay a larger share of her paycheck – than a wealthy corporate lawyer? This is doubly unfair in an economy in which top earners’ wages, overtime, have pulled far ahead of those of the average worker […].

“This is a no-brainer: The wealthiest Americans, who have benefited the most from America’s opportunities, should contribute the same percentage of their income as a factory worker in Chillicothe, Ohio, or a teacher in Worcester, Mass.”

Moreno and Warren cited a study by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan public-policy think tank, which found that the elimination of the payroll tax cap “would inject around $3 trillion into the [Social Security] program over the next 10 years”.

While calls to lift the taxable minimum have traditionally been associated more closely with Democrats, Moreno is not the only Republican who is considering the cap’s future.

For example, Tom Cole, a GOP House representative from Oklahoma who is the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, has said he is “willing to look at the tax rate”, per the Washington Post.

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When are Social Security funds set to run out?

In their annual report for 2026, the trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds warned that the SSA’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance fund will only be able to pay all scheduled benefits “until the fourth quarter of 2032”.

“At that time, the fund’s reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 78 percent of total scheduled benefits,” the report says.

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