Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"For Social Security, currently a worker is taxed at the rate of 6.2 percent on the first $102,000 of earnings that they make. Now this number is adjusted for inflation each year. Now, of course, most people don't make more than $102,000 income in a year, so most are going to pay the full 6.2 percent on all of their earnings. However, there are obviously people who make more than $102,000, and so once they get to $102,000, what they pay for Social Security is over, and they don't pay on any dollars above $102,000. Now, some say that's unfair, that we should extend the 6.2 percent to all earnings. But this actually raises another issue, because when you get money back from Social Security, typically what you get back does rise with the income you earn when you work. But there's a cutoff. And that cutoff is exactly the same as the cutoff on the pay-in side. In other words, someone retiring and earning more than $102,000 while they work, they're going to get the same Social Security benefits as someone earning right at $102,000. They don't get any more. So, the point is, if you're worried about fairness, if you do extend the 6.2 percent to all incomes, you likely need to extend the payback that people get when they retire so that what you get back goes up beyond $102,000. No one's proposed that, so that's what makes this a little more messy of an issue here. You want to tax people more but not give them anything in return."