Increasing payroll taxes to fund SS expansion kills jobs on a mass scale.

“The way we fund the Social Security system, I think, needs to be examined. What we fund it for, chronic or long-term care, has not been addressed, and that’s one of seniors’ major needs,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Thomas dismissed the idea of raising the limit on payroll tax deductions from the current $90,000, which would make wealthier people pay more into the system. “Why even bother looking at the payroll tax? That was a solution in the 1940s and the 1950s,” he said, when the rate was 2 percent of income. “Now that it’s 12 percent, we actually are dealing with a job-killer. The higher the payroll tax, the fewer people are hired. ... Let’s find revenue that doesn’t continue to kill jobs but also meets our needs,” said Thomas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.