Some Republicans are slowly warming to the idea of raising payroll taxes on upper-income households to shore up Social Security.

Rep. Lloyd K. Smucker of Pennsylvania, a top candidate to lead House Budget Committee Republicans in the next Congress, said Thursday that raising the cap on income subject to Social Security payroll taxes could be part of the solution to avoid having to cut benefits.

Without a fix, benefits would need to be cut by 22 percent in 2032, according to projections from the Social Security Board of Trustees.

A payroll tax increase is a controversial position for a Republican to take, but one that could become more acceptable when lawmakers from both parties look for a compromise to prevent the Social Security trust funds from being exhausted.

“You’ll probably have to do something on the payroll half of the money being paid into the system,” Smucker told reporters without providing further details on raising the payroll tax cap.

As for the risk of a benefits cut in six years, he said, “We can’t allow that to happen, and the only way you address that is to start being serious and realistic about the math problem and the demographics.”

And Smucker isn’t the only Republican to suggest a payroll tax increase on higher incomes.

Earlier this summer, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, drew flak from fellow Republicans after he and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., proposed lifting the cap so that the tax would apply to all earned income.

In a New York Times op ed column in June, they wrote that it was a “no brainer: the wealthiest Americans, who have benefited the most from America’s opportunities, should contribute the same percentage of their income as a factory worker in Chillicothe, Ohio, or a teacher in Worcester, Mass.”

The payroll tax — 6.2 percent paid by employees and 6.2 percent paid by employers — is only imposed on the first $184,500 of earned income in 2026 and is adjusted each year for inflation.

“Since the vast majority of Americans make less than that, most people are paying Social Security taxes on 100 percent of their earnings while the highest earners are paying on only part of theirs,” Moreno and Warren wrote.

But critics of raising the payroll tax cap, such as the Tax Foundation, say it could reduce economic growth through higher taxes, sever the link between taxes paid into the program and benefits received from it, and do little to make the system solvent in the long term.

Proposals to raise the payroll tax run the gamut from raising the cap only for income above $250,000 in one bill, to above $400,000 in another bill, to applying it to all income above the current cap, as Moreno and Warren have advocated.

Other options

Smucker said a “combination” of changes is needed to make Social Security sustainable, including “probably” raising the retirement age — currently 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later — “to match essentially that people are living so much longer.”

He added that lawmakers should consider expanding means-testing in Social Security, so that more benefits go to low-income retirees and fewer to the wealthy.

“The question is, if someone has very high income during retirement age, should they really be able to access Social Security in the same way that someone in poverty does?” he said.

Republicans, in general, have been inclined to stress ways to bend the spending curve down on Social Security, whose cost is growing faster than the economy. Democrats have proposed raising taxes to fund the program and to expand benefits.

Beyond preventing benefit cuts, Smucker said addressing the gap between Social Security benefits and the taxes that support the program also would help reduce the growth of the debt.

“I think this requires a conversation, a broad conversation with the American people, talk about … what it is that we can do to change, to make good on the promises on Social Security, but also change the fiscal trajectory,” he said.

“We can make it sustainable,” he said. “We can ensure that the system continues to exist for young people, exceeding their expectations. And if you do it today, you can do it without affecting current retirees’ benefits.”