Should Social Security be means Tested?

It already is!

Percent of Salary Replaced by Social Security Retirement Benefits

As you can see from the graph there are huge differences in the percent of your salary that Social Security replaces, depending upon your salary. At the low end of the scale, for salaries below $10,000, retirees receive about 78% of their eligible salary. That appears to be the maximum salary replacement level. 

At the high end, the maximum Social Security retirement income is a little over $27,000 a year. And, it's the same for everyone earning over $115,000/year. For those earning exactly $115,000, the max Social Security check replaces 24% of their salary. Since the maximum payment is fixed, the percent replaced declines steadily from that point forward. For those earning $250,000 the replacement rate is about 11%; for those earning $500,000 (not shown on the chart) the replacement rate is 5%.  There is no minimum salary replacement level.

 12 Million to Pay More Social Security Tax in 2017

Amid all the chatter about tax cuts the incoming Republican administration is expected to shepherd through a Republican Congress, it's easy to lose sight of a tax increase. Social Security payroll tax is set to rise for some workers due to a 7.3% increase in the maximum taxable earnings cutoff from $118,500 to $127,200.

 DYI:

This is what policy wonks call bending the curve down as Congress increases the capture rate – fancy wording for tax increases – far greater than increases in benefits.  This is to” kick the can down the road” a few more years before massive Social Security deficits occur forcing this agency to do the unthinkable; reducing benefits to place the program back into balance between revenues and benefits paid.  Anticipate as time rolls on additional “kicking of the can down the road” to postpone the final day of reckoning when this program can no longer stand alone needing support from income taxes or a national value added tax placed on consumption.  Isn’t socialism grand!?  I’m being sarcastic.  The past Prime Minister of England Margaret Thatcher so ably stated: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”  

 DYI