The proposals included a tax on health insurance benefits provided by employers to high-income workers.

Many Republicans in Congress favor lowering the Social Security tax rate, but few if any support raising the amount that high-income workers pay.

Because high-income workers have a chunk of earnings that escape the payroll tax, they do not bear a proportional share of this burden.

Why should high-income workers get generous Federal tax subsidies for their health insurance?

The gap between the relatively high-income worker and the relatively low-income worker had widened.

It also is undercutting some of the revenue gains that Congress expected when it limited pension and 401(k) benefits for high-income workers.

Among high-income workers, people bemoan what is known as the marriage tax.

Even high-income workers, whose benefits would be trimmed the most, would end up with $1,626 a month, about $100 more than today's system could afford.

Social Security has an image as a progressive program because low-income workers get back bigger monthly checks, relative to their salaries, than high-income workers do.

In addition, high-income workers would have to pay the 1.45 percent Medicare tax on all their earnings.