Social Security Nostrum Undermined

In one of his usual tweets slamming the Trump Administration, Mark Cuban undermines a Democratic nostrum for social security funding:

You do realize that social security is returning the money you pay out of your paycheck ?

And the administration said they would not reduce payments in any way

You good with making it harder for seniors to confirm the bank accounts ? Potentially leading to them not be able to…

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) March 19, 2025

Social Security payroll taxes are imposed upon wages, salaries, and other earned income up to a ceiling of $176,100 in 2025. The employee pays 6.2%, or $10,918.20 into the SS system, and the employer matches the tax so that a total of $21,836.40 is credited to the employee. When he retires, the employee gets his money back, plus a return, as Mark Cuban says.

Some liberals want to eliminate the tax ceiling so that executives who make, say, $2 million, will remit payroll taxes of $248,000. Left unsaid is their advocacy of a ceiling on benefits; the millionaire retiree won't get his money back in order to keep the system solvent.

The problem with the liberal solution is that Social Security will stand revealed as just another welfare program, another transfer from rich to poor. Social Security was never sold as a transfer program but originated by FDR as a retirement program where participants received benefits proportionate to their contributions.

Although I disagree with most of what Mark Cuban says, give him credit for acknowledging a truth about Social Security that many on his "side" won't acknowledge.