Under current law, the Social Security payroll tax applies to earnings only up to about $185,000. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who helped introduce earlier this year the bipartisan PROMISE Act to reform Social Security, objected to Wyden’s characterization. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., posited that simply boosting Social Security revenues would “harm economic growth” and fundamentally restructure the program into a “welfare system.” “Another thing we ought to grapple with is, Social Security is a legal Ponzi scheme. You'll not solve this problem if you're not willing to recognize how grossly mismanaged Social Security was for decades.”