Social Security
Obama: Obama opposes funneling any part of Social Security to privatized accounts. He supports raising the payroll tax cap so that people who make more than $250,000—"people like me," Obama says—would pay more. People who fall in the "doughnut" between $102,000—a tax cap indexed to inflation—and $250,000 would pay no payroll tax on that portion between those amounts.
McCain: McCain favors using private accounts to supplement Social Security, "but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept." He has been criticized for saying he didn't support the Bush plan to privatize Social Security even though he now champions a form of private accounts. McCain does not support raising the age of eligibility or reducing benefits but has offered no plan to pay for the program—only a promise to negotiate a solution with congressional Democrats upon being elected.
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