Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) greeted the news that Elon Musk had become a trillionaire by — what else? — touting a plan to raise federal spending and taxes. Musk “pays the same amount into Social Security as someone making $184,500,” Sanders tweeted. He said his bill would “end that absurdity,” eliminate the program’s shortfall for 75 years and pay for an expansion of Social Security benefits.

The shortfall certainly needs closing. Last week, the Social Security trustees estimated it at roughly $29 trillion over the next 75 years. And they are probably being optimistic. They assume Americans will have more babies in the coming decades than either the Census Bureau or the Congressional Budget Office does, which would help Social Security’s finances.

Sanders is also correct that Musk, whose net worth is $1.4 trillion and counting, pays no more in Social Security taxes than many of his engineers. But Sanders’s idea is terrible. It would be a much larger and more harmful tax increase than its supporters let on and would further warp the federal government’s already perverse spending priorities.

If the Social Security tax cap that Sanders mentioned is an “absurdity,”........

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