Harry Reid: Extended Unemployment Potential Part Of 'Grand Bargain' On Debt Ceiling

The Republican­s want to means test people for Social Security so that high income beneficiar­ies would not receive benefits. How much would it save the system if beneficiar­ies in the top 5% of incomes were denied the benefits that they paid for during their working lives? Don't get me wrong, I do not favor the wealthy over ordinary Americans but the small number of them who would be means tested probably do not need and may not apply for benefits now and the savings from denying them benefits would do very little to extend the life of Social Security.



The system is already skewed to benefit low income workers, as it should be. There are three brackets of benefits, one for the low income workers whose lifetime earnings are small, one for most of us who did better in life, and another for high income workers. That bracket provides a limit on how much high income workers can make in benefits. Means testing would turn the insurance program into a welfare program, that is not what it was intended to be.
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