Wednesday, September 2, 2026 | Edition 193 | Item #3

Actually don’t, because roughly 8 in 10  U.S. adults who receive or expect to receive Social Security say the program needs to change in order to avoid the 22% reduction in benefits starting in 2032, according to new research from Nationwide. That includes 82% of Democrats and 78% of Republicans, a rare point of unanimity in an age of polarization.

What’s more, Democrats and Republicans largely agree on the remedy. Raising taxes on higher earners drew the most support of any fix, at 51%, and was the top choice in both parties. Workers now pay Social Security taxes on the first $184,500 of earnings and proposals are being floated to raise the cap or even eliminate it altogether.  The second and third most popular options for both Democrats and Republicans is to increase employer payroll tax (42%) and reduce or eliminate benefits for higher income earners (38%). 

Social security reform has not been a major issue for the 2028 midterms (Brookings recently reported that only 7 out of 56 candidate websites reviewed laid out any position on social security reform) but that may change soon, as 75% of respondents reported that a “candidate's stance on Social Security reform will be a major factor in how I vote in future elections.”  We can only hope.