The current situation
Most of America lives below the line
The $120,000 line isn't arbitrary. It's roughly where the American wage distribution puts almost everyone.
Hold those three numbers together. About 9 in 10 wage earners are at or below $120,000 (SSA, 2023). The median earner takes home about $48,000 (SSA, 2023). And the prices those paychecks have to cover rose about 21% from January 2020 to December 2024 (BLS CPI). Federal income tax comes out of every one of those checks before the groceries do.
So when we talk about tax relief at or below $120,000, we are not talking about a niche. We are talking about nearly the entire American workforce — more than 150 million people received wages in 2023 (SSA), which means well over 100 million Americans earn $120,000 or less.
Why it matters
The fastest raise is the one you already earned
Wages are set by employers and markets, and working people wait on both. But the federal income tax on a working paycheck is a policy choice — one the country can change on purpose, for everyone under the line at once.
We think the case is simple. When prices rise about 21% in five years (BLS CPI, Jan 2020 – Dec 2024), the household math tightens everywhere at once: rent, food, insurance, gas. Relief aimed at earnings of $120,000 or less goes exactly where the squeeze is — to the people who spend their paychecks in their own communities, because they have to.
And it draws a clean line the working majority can actually see. Not a maze of credits you need software to find. A plain promise: if you earn $120,000 or less, the federal income tax on those earnings shrinks toward zero — and your Social Security and Medicare are untouched.
Our position
What we support
- Reduce or eliminate federal income tax on earnings of $120,000 or less. Relief can be phased in — the destination is a working paycheck the federal income tax leaves alone.
- Fully maintain Social Security and Medicare payroll funding. Payroll taxes are separate from income tax, and under our proposal they are not reduced by one cent. No back-door cut to the safety net, ever.
- Relief on the first $120,000 for everyone. Earning above the line shouldn't mean punishment — income tax would begin only above $120,000, so there's no cliff where a raise costs you money.
- Honest financing, published in the open. How to pay for it is a fair question and it deserves a real answer. We will publish full financing options with our formal proposal at launch — and our position is that none of them may touch payroll funding for Social Security or Medicare.
The calculator is an illustrative estimate using 2025 single-filer brackets and the standard deduction — no credits, no state tax. It shows the shape of the idea, not a promise of a number. Not tax advice.
What it would mean
Three households, one idea
Illustrative examples — composites, not real members, and not tax advice. Run your own number in the calculator above.
The median earner
A warehouse lead or home health aide earning near the national median of about $48,000 (SSA, 2023) would keep every dollar now withheld as federal income tax. That money doesn't vanish into an abstraction — it becomes brakes fixed, a security deposit, a start on savings.
The two-earner family
A nurse and a mechanic, each earning well under the line, would each keep what they now pay in federal income tax on their wages — while both keep paying into, and earning credit toward, Social Security and Medicare exactly as they do today.
Earning above the line
A manager clearing more than $120,000 still gets relief on the first $120,000; income tax would begin only above the line. Nobody is worse off for succeeding, and nobody under the line is left carrying what those above it once shared.
Where this stands
An honest status report
Members of Congress have, over the years, introduced income-tax-relief proposals with different thresholds and different mechanisms — exempting certain kinds of income, raising deductions, restructuring brackets. None of those proposals is identical to ours, and none resembling ours has been enacted. We say that plainly because a movement that fudges where its ideas stand doesn't deserve your trust on anything else.
What distinguishes our position is the pairing: relief keyed to the $120,000 line that covers about 9 in 10 wage earners (SSA, 2023), joined to an explicit, non-negotiable guarantee that Social Security and Medicare payroll funding is fully preserved. Tax relief that quietly starves the safety net isn't relief — it's a transfer with extra steps, and we're not for it.
When we publish our formal proposal at national launch, it will include the legislative text we'd support, financing options, and transition rules — all of it public, all of it debatable, all of it subject to a member vote.
Fair questions
Does this cut Social Security or Medicare?
No — and this is the part of our position that is not negotiable. Social Security and Medicare are funded by payroll taxes, which are collected separately from federal income tax. Our proposal leaves payroll taxes fully in place, so funding for both programs continues exactly as it does today. About 68 million Americans receive Social Security benefits (SSA, 2024); we support protecting that, not spending it.
What happens if I earn more than $120,000?
You'd still benefit. Under our position, federal income tax would apply only to earnings above $120,000 — so everyone gets relief on the first $120,000, and there is no cliff where earning one more dollar makes you worse off.
How would the country pay for it?
Honestly: that's the hard part, and we won't pretend otherwise. Our formal proposal at launch will lay out financing options in public, with numbers and trade-offs, for members to debate and vote on. The one boundary we set in advance is that financing may not come out of Social Security or Medicare payroll funding.
Is there a bill in Congress I can support right now?
There are periodically bills that move in this direction with different thresholds and mechanisms, but no current federal legislation matches this proposal. Part of what this movement exists to do is change that — by showing how many voters live below the line. About 9 in 10 wage earners do (SSA, 2023).
Make it real
Ideas don't pass. Majorities do.
More than 100 million Americans earn $120,000 or less. If even a fraction stand together, this stops being a proposal and starts being a mandate. Membership is free — and it comes with a vote.
Opens at national launch