Reasonable and logical tax proposals are needed that would create incentives to work and put more money in the hands of the middle-class wage earner. Economic freedom is a critical success factor to stimulate growth.

During 2013, Sen. Susan Collins responded to my proposal to revise the U.S. payroll tax policy. She also sent a copy of a Congressional Research Service report. The report was reassuring, since its approach coincided with my personal analysis to fund and preserve the Social Security system and put more money in the hands of middle class workers.

The Congressional Research report addressed three alternative approaches to modify the taxable wage income policy and summarized the changes with concerns for and against the potential changes.

Arguments for included that the current Social Security taxable wage base creates a regressive tax structure. Also, that workers earning less than the base have a greater proportion of earnings taxed than workers whose earnings exceed the base.

Arguments against were that these arguments were very shallow (identifying the EIC benefit). Hidden in their arguments was a reluctance to create payroll tax for earners with wages ranging from $117,000 to $20 million.

To lower the tax burden for middle class individuals and self-employed wage earners, and to increase the revenue to fund Social Security (up to $50 billion annually), the taxable income base should be removed. All wages should be taxed at the same rate. And lower the Social Security payroll tax from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent.

Len Greaney, Rumford Center