Description

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This book is a passionate public policy proposal to address increasing income inequality in the U.S. by radically reforming the structure and financing of Social Security and Medicare. It will interest readers seeking solutions to two very large, growing challenges - stagnant incomes for the working class and solvency of our major entitlement programs. The book begins with a description of the analytical approach, then proceeds to identify the problems and explain how they were caused by flawed federal policies. I propose replacing Social Security with a negative income tax type Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) at the poverty level ($1250/month) for every adult citizen to correct the injustices. As a transition to the new entitlement program - Social Security Basic Income (SSBI) - I propose Free to Work (FTW), a program that eliminates the payroll tax and fully funds existing Social Security obligations and Medicare from general revenue by eliminating most tax expenditures and raising income taxes on a more progressive scale. Detailed tables and charts that use the Treasury's Internal Revenue Service data show how both changes will affect taxpayers at various levels of income from zero to $320,000/year.