Why does Congress perpetuate the working class tax overload?

(VV note: Tom Edsall argues for raising or eliminating the $113,700 earned income cap on the payroll tax that funds Social Security benefits. We say: Extend the payroll tax to unearned income as well in order to guarantee the security of Social Security and lower the tax rate for most working, middle-class Americans ... not to mention their employers as well.)

The War On Entitlements

By THOMAS B. EDSALL, NYT

The debate over reform of Social Security and Medicare is taking place in a vacuum, without adequate consideration of fundamental facts.

These facts include the following: Two-thirds of Americans who are over the age of 65 depend on an average annual Social Security benefit of $15,168.36 for at least half of their income.

Currently, earned income in excess of $113,700 is entirely exempt from the 6.2 percent payroll tax that funds Social Security benefits (employers pay a matching 6.2 percent). 5.2 percent of working Americans make more than $113,700 a year. Simply by eliminating the payroll tax earnings cap — and thus ending this regressive exemption for the top 5.2 percent of earners — would, according to the Congressional Budget Office, solve the financial crisis facing the Social Security system.

So why don’t we talk about raising or eliminating the cap – a measure that has strong popular, though not elite, support?

(More here.)