(WHTM)– Social Security’s website has a red banner and raises red flags about its solvency, saying by 2035 it can only pay 75% of scheduled benefits and by 2037 trust fund reserves will be exhausted.

Problematic math that many say will require retirement ages to be raised or cause retirement benefits reduced, or maybe both.

“I don’t think there is problematic math at all,” Democratic Congressional Candidate John Broadhurst said. He said in Wednesday’s 10th Congressional District Primary Debate the solution is simple.

“We know that if we were to simply lift the cap on contributions to Social Security, we would have no trouble financing this for generations to come,” Broadhurst said.

Social Security tax comes out of our paychecks but has a yearly cap. This year it’s $168,600. After that social security stops taking.

Close

Thanks for signing up!

Watch for us in your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Nittany Insiders

This means someone making $169,000 pays the same in social security as Taylor Swift or LeBron James. That is unfair, Broadhurst argues. He wants to take more from higher earners to have more for everybody else.

“The reality of America today is that very few Americans have sufficient personal savings,” Broadhurst said. “So we have to preserve it.”

“This is a tax increase,” Nate Benefield of the Conservative Commonwealth Foundation said. “A massive tax increase.” And Benefield calls that unfair.

“It really would be moving away from what is originally a retirement system of you get back what you paid into raising taxes to redistribute it to other people,” Benefield said. “That’s going to soak people with higher taxes, but keep benefits the same and freeze benefits.”

There was a Philly pitcher who just signed a $40 million-a-year contract the other day, and he’s paying the same amount into Social Security as we are.

Benefield said that is fair “Because he’s getting the same social benefit as I will, assuming he works as long as I do.”

Just one candidate mentioned it in this debate but a lot more of them no doubt will as the Social Security funding crisis gets closer.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.