2017 is the back end of the Reagan Tax Cuts, he cut taxes on the rich and raised Social Security on the middle class to partially offset the huge deficits he created. But the extra social security was going to be saved in US government securities, which it was, and used to offset the increased demand on the system when the boomers retired, which it will.
By now the wealthy should have made so much by investing that money, that the additional income taxes should be no problem, at least that's how Reagan presented it.

__________________
“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address