That is not a new idea.  I remember my mother griping about a well-to-do aunt that was receiving SS benefits.  She said she didn’t need it, and shouldn’t be receiving it because she could get along without it.  She was advocating means testing even if she didn’t have the name to hang on it. 

I don’t know.  The arguments on the other side back then are a bit fuzzy. 

My argument is that I could have used means testing when I was raising a family and living paycheck to paycheck.  The FICA deduction percentage went up frequently,  as did the ceiling on deductions.  We used to look forward to the respite around Thanksgiving time when we had reached the ceiling and our take-home pay increased as the deductions ceased – until January 1 of the following year.

That few-week respite was a welcome Christmas present.  Unfortunately it kept getting shorter year after year until one year it disappeared as it outraced my paycheck.  The next year we had a couple of weeks of relief as my pay surged above the annual ceiling, but that was rectified in the following year.  From that time on we were left in the dust as the ceiling kept being raised much faster than my annual pay.      

Then the powers that be decided that they could increase the tolerance for fleecing by breaking the SS and Medicare portions into separate gouges.  That separation allowed each percentage to accelerate in size, a psychological ploy to raise the fleecing bar.

Seems to me that entitles me, as per the contract, to receive the benefits promised in return for the mandatory “contributions” taken from my hide during the difficult times of early family hood.  Those of us that have participated in the program all of our lives are entitled.  There was no means testing back when we were being fleeced by the system.