Bernie Moreno

Bernie Moreno and Elizabeth Warren, two of the most ideologically opposed members of the U.S. Senate, have done the almost unthinkable, collaborating on a New York Times opinion piece with a real solution to America’s Social Security crisis.

Today in Ohio podcast hosts, nearly in a state of disbelief that Moreno would take such a step, applauded himWednesday for taking the bold stand necessary to ensure Social Security lasts for many years to come. The idea from Moreno and Warren: erase the maximum withholding cap that lets wealthy Americans avoid paying their share.

Right now, workers and employers each pay a little over 6 percent in Social Security taxes, but only on wages up to about $184,000 a year. Once someone earns beyond that threshold, they stop paying into the program. That means the highest earners in America pay Social Security taxes on only a fraction of what they make, while most working Americans pay on every dollar they earn.

Moreno and Warren’s proposal would eliminate that cap entirely. According to their New York Times op-ed, doing so would add roughly $3 trillion to the program over a decade and extend Social Security’s solvency for another generation. Absent a solution, Social Security’s trustees have warned that they will run our of money in six years.

“This is such a no brainer. We should just do it immediately,” host Chris Quinn said.

Quinn recalled first learning about the payroll tax cap from his mother, an executive who once told him she had “tapped out” her Social Security withholding for the year — a concept that struck him as fundamentally unfair from the moment he heard it.

Moreno and Warren cited a 2025 poll showing that 65 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Republicans support lifting the cap — including a majority of households earning over $200,000, the people who would actually pay more.

Podcast host Courtney Astolfi pointed out just how stark the drift has become: the share of national earnings subject to Social Security payroll taxes fell from 90 percent in 1982 to 81 in 2021. The wealthiest slice of earners keeps claiming a bigger share of national income — and paying Social Security taxes on smaller percentages of it.

Laura Johnston noted that Social Security payments, while modest — often under $2,000 a month — represent a substantial portion of income for roughly half of all recipients.

The political puzzle, of course, is Bernie Moreno: “Can anybody understand how this fits with his general philosophy of just doing whatever Trump wants him to?” Quinn asked.

Whatever the reason, a Trump-aligned senator and one of the Senate’s most prominent progressives have found common ground on fixing something that is sacred for many Americans. Maybe that unlikely alignment finally makes it happen.

Listen to the discussion here.

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