Republicans warming to Social Security tax hikes: Sen. Bernie Moreno, Rep. Tom Cole, Rep. Lloyd K. Smucker, Sen. Mike Crapo

As Social Security fund runs dry, some Republicans say it’s time to raise taxes

... But Cole, at least, said he thinks the political blowback from Social Security benefit cuts would be far worse than a comprehensive solution that includes raising taxes. 

“I love Grover [Norquist]. But … you’ve got to deal with Social Security,” Cole said. “And believe me, you’ll have a lot bigger problem if it goes bankrupt than you’ll have keeping it whole, because people will feel cheated.” ...                                         

 

Tom Cole is right. Just fix the damn thing.

A person who has contributed the maximum every year since 1983 has accumulated about $475,000 including the employer match. At a current maximum monthly benefit draw of about $5.1k, that sum is exhausted in just under eight years, if he lives that long.

The wage cap for Social Security taxes paid by such a person has not been pegged to inflation. It's been higher than that. Had it been pegged only to inflation since 1983, Social Security taxes today would top out at $120k of wages instead of $184,500.

The wage cap tracks the national average wage index. And Medicare taxes are not capped at all and capture all income.

If it's true that the intent of indexing to the national average wage index was to capture 90% of all aggregated U.S. earnings, a future fix should include an increase to the wage cap to close the gap which has developed. Today's cap captures only 83% of aggregated income.

In other words, the wage cap, even though it rose much higher than the rate of inflation since 1983, still did not rise high enough.

We should fix that and move the wage cap higher as indicated, but we should not remove the wage cap entirely, which would sever the connection between contributions and benefits. That means raising the wage cap to $300,000 and creating a mechanism for automatic increases to maintain the 90% standard.  

That would be in addition to raising the retirement age gradually from 67 to 69, and immediately raising the payroll tax to 7.2% from 6.2%.

Just do it. 

NBC News: Labor share of business income falls to historic lows as corporate profits explode

American workers are getting the smallest slice of the pie on record

 

Rob Wile

 

Since 2000, the value of the S&P 500 stock index has gained about 600%. Over the same period, inflation-adjusted worker earnings have climbed just 12.5%. 

 

It is now the least rewarding time to be a worker in the U.S. economy since the government started keeping track.

The share of economic growth captured by labor in the form of compensation like wages fell to a record low last quarter, hitting 52.8%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which began recording the statistic in 1947.

In other words, even as the economy continues to grow, worker pay comprises an ever smaller slice of the pie.

The data comes as stock prices continue to hover near all-time highs, while wage growth is barely keeping up with inflation.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that wage growth slowed to its lowest rate in five years in August and remains below the broader pace of price growth.

It’s the latest data point reflecting a decades-long stagnation in returns to labor, while corporate profits have exploded.

Since approximately the start of this century, the S&P 500 stock index has gained about 600%. Over the same period, inflation-adjusted worker earnings have climbed just 12.5%.

Wages vs. inflation

Since April, the prices consumers pay are rising faster than wages.

As of April 2026, inflation has outpaced wages, spiking in May at 4.2% before falling to 3.3% in July. Wages have continued a downward trend since March 2025 when the annual change was 4.2%, falling to 3.1% in August 2026.

What’s driving it all?

Economists aren’t really certain about the exact cause, but a confluence of factors appears to be at work, according to Mike Konczal, vice president of policy and research at the Economic Security Project and a former White House chief economist in the Biden administration.

The start of the century coincided with what is known as the “China Shock,” as Beijing’s entry into the World Trade Organization massively accelerated globalization and offshoring.

The shock chipped away at the number of traditional blue-collar workers in the U.S., and it reduced the bargaining power of those who remained.

Meanwhile, technological advances have allowed the typical worker to generate larger volumes of more valuable services.

But those gains are being captured as company profits, not as wage growth.

The trend appeared to reverse, or at least stabilize, for a brief period during the post-pandemic economic reopening. But exactly why that happened is still not entirely clear.

The decline resumed after President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025.

Konczal said some economists believe corporations have sought to increase their profit margins at the expense of higher wages for workers in order compensate for the economic uncertainty that Trump’s tariff policies have created.

Regardless of the specific reasons behind the renewed drop in gains for labor, the decline has implications for all of society, Konczal said.

It stands to increase wealth inequality by putting more resources in the hands of capital owners — namely stock market investors — while the returns to workers stagnate.

It also has fiscal implications: Konczal said efforts to increase taxes on wealth or corporate profits have proved politically untenable so far, compared with the current arrangement of taxing earned income and wages instead.

“The economy can start to become unequal in a way that it’s not just the CEO who makes more, but people who own shares do, and that wealth is very, very unequal,” he said.

 

 

Middle East tanker transits 30 August - 5 September, 2026 per UKMTO JMIC Update 094: Strait of Hormuz 0.9/day, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait 11.9/day

WTI: $92.95

BRENT: $97.61

GASOLINE USA: $4.09

 

These are the people we want in America, but Trump doesn't want them

 

In July 1978 60% of teenagers 16-19 years old worked, but in August 2026 only 32.8% do

Bring back the cult of work.

 

 

There were 25.89 million prime working age people 25-54 years of age in America just like Abdul who didn't work in August 2026, but Abdul says we have a cult of work

 We have 11.76 million teenagers 16-19 years old, 7.45 million college kids 20-24 years old, 25.89 million core adults 25-54 years old, and 67.63 million people 55 or older, all of whom did not work in August 2026.

That's over 112 million eating but not working.

They can't all work, obviously, but if each group lived up to its own past peak performance, 13.27 million more across all groups could in fact be working who are not working.

That 13.27 million more working is just 11.8% more.

GDP sucks in part because we aren't working up to our past potential.

As I incessantly point out, the key to a happy life is a full time job, because it allows you to arbitrage it for a car, a home, a spouse, and children.

Peak full time in America was in July 2000 when 54.67% had a full time job. In August 2026 just 49.14% did. The difference between those two points at current population is an extra 15.2 million full time jobs which we don't presently have.

America is a much bigger place now than in July 2000, too, by 63 million in civilian non-institutional population. Shouldn't that also make us stronger? 

Do we really think an extra 15 million out of 112 million is dreaming the impossible dream?  

We need leaders who don't think so.

But this guy . . . 

 

 

Persian Gulf crude oil exports were down 39% from baseline in August 2026

 

Middle East tanker transits per UKMTO JMIC Update 093, August 27-September 2, 2026: Strait of Hormuz 1.0/day, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait 9.4/day

WTI: $91

BRENT: $96

GASOLINE USA: $4.12

 

Trump's Overton Window to crazy in Michigan: Antifa DSA Democrat Will Lawrence seeks MI-7 seat, wants to abolish old people, police, prisons, fossil fuels, the U.S. Senate, borders, capitalism, and the nuclear family

Yes, Michigan can produce worse than Abdul.

 

Swing-Seat Dem Deletes Posts on 'World Without Police'

Andrew Kaczynski, CNN

 

 

 

Who's not working in August 2026?

Over 112 million, that's who: 

67.2% of teenagers 16-19 years old: 11.8 million

33.7% of the college-aged 20-24 years old: 7.5 million

19.9% of prime working age adults 25-54 years old: 25.9 million

64.1% of the population 55 years old or older: 67.6 million.

OMG the guy who opened the Overton Window For Every Current Crazy Idea in the first place is pictured right next to Paul Ryan spouting another one ROFLMAO

 

Trump's IRS turns a blind eye to illegal alien employment

 

Exposed: Illegal Alien Employment Workaround

Victoria Manning, Restoration News

 

Federal law prohibits employers from knowingly hiring an unauthorized immigrant and from employing someone without work authorization. Yet a growing network of nonprofits and universities is teaching the illegal alien community exactly how to get around the law, one Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) at a time.

The IRS only cares about collecting taxes—illegal or not. It all starts with the ITIN.

Immigrants Rising, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is one of several organizations Restoration News has uncovered that openly help undocumented immigrants bypass work authorization requirements. It is just one example in our investigative series on the topic.

... Even though foreigners should not work in the United States without work authorization, an ITIN can be used to obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN) to establish a business. The IRS is aware of this workaround—and looks away.

 

... The IRS states that an ITIN does not “authorize you to work legally in the U.S.” However, you can “apply for an ITIN regardless of immigration status.” Uncle Sam wants its tax money, even if the employment violates work authorization laws.

 

The process is severely flawed. Lawful immigrants who follow the lengthy and costly process to come to America legally often still must wait in line to receive proper work authorization. Yet the IRS turns a blind eye to illegal aliens who circumvent the law to take jobs away from legal migrants and citizens.

 

The IRS allows third-party groups known as Certifying Acceptance Agents (CAAs) to process paperwork and certify the identities of applicants to obtain an ITIN. Nearly anyone can become a CAA—just complete the online training, apply, and wait for approval. Illegal aliens can then go to a CAA to obtain an ITIN without ever having to interact directly with the IRS. A student identification card (for individuals under age 24), a foreign driver’s license, and a foreign birth certificate are acceptable documents to verify a person’s identity for an ITIN. No need to prove legal status, and those documents don’t have to be sent to the IRS. They remain with the CAA.

 

... The IRS should stop treating tax compliance as a substitute for legal status. And the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department should start asking why elite universities and tax-exempt organizations are functioning as distribution channels for a workaround to federal law. 

This story is all excited about that little squiggle uptick on the right lol

 

The Real Economy: Manufacturing Jobs

Oren Cass, Commonplace

 

Joe Biden manufacturing employment never looked so good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

When CNBC says you are a fascist . . .

 Trump’s state capitalism comes to the oil industry with his unprecedented Venezuela deal

This blatant political interference with the full faith and credit of the United States by the president should be condemned by everyone

 Trump doubles down on threat to halt trade with top partners unless Fed cuts rates

Every age group in America has lost its worth ethic to one degree or another, for one reason or another

The percentage of each age group's population which works is in structural decline:

Teens since 1978 (get a haircut and get a real job); 

College kids since 1989 (because they went to college more and more after that, duh);

Core adults 25-54 since the late 1990s (they keep getting knocked down but they mostly keep getting back up again 👍 -- this is a huge tranche with some people carrying the load more than others, and you know who you are);

Americans 55 and over since 2019 (the Great Recession didn't kill 'em, from which they made more than a nice recovery, but they are not going to recover from the pandemic era for decades to come because Peak Baby Boom turned 62 that year).

  

 

Trump's immigration policies have been all sound and fury, signifying nothing

All theatre.

Yes, very bad theatre, but theatre nonetheless.

The foreign born population in August 2026 is virtually unchanged from October 2024. 

 

 

When yields were hopeful about federal spending cuts from DOGE and federal revenue increases from tariffs

"Fiscal discipline" from Mad King Ludwig: 

Trump is too stupid to take the win handed to him by +162k payrolls in August

  New York Fed’s Williams says yield surge due to strong economic prospects

Analysis: Lower Treasury yields could require a weaker economy. Trump won’t fix them 

... The rise in real yields is “more of a reflection of the strength of the economy,” New York Federal Reserve President John Williams told CNBC Wednesday. Some people want to read the rise in yields as dragging on the economy, but that logic is backward, he said. 

“It’s not really about financial conditions affecting the economy. It’s more about the economy affecting financial conditions,” Williams said.  

The flip side of Williams’ analysis is that it may take an economic slowdown for borrowing costs to cool. But that isn’t a solution anyone would want to root for.

 

This will never not be funny

They hate you with the heat of 1,000 suns. 

 U.S. payrolls rose 162,000 in August, much more than expected; unemployment rate at 4.1%