First of all, "there's no money for this" coming from the federal government is a lie, on any topic. They just don't want to, and take advantage of people not knowing how money works. There's always money for bombs, but for schools and social services not so much. Second of all, as others have said, capping social security payments per year is stupid. It should be progressive. The first $x don't get taxed at all, then higher rates as your income goes high. Third, it shouldn't be tied to your personal contributions. We live in a society, despite what anti social conservative monsters say.