Sen. Barack Obama says Social Security taxes need to be revamped, and he's proposing a hike aimed at wealthy Americans.
"This is an issue that we've been punting, and it's going to make it harder to solve it in the long term," Obama said in an interview with the Boston Globe.
Criticizing the nation's "most regressive tax," Obama cited a need to increase revenues to the retirement fund and spread the burden of paying for the program more evenly.
He insisted that rhe would not raise the retirement age or cut benefits for what he called "the most successful social insurance program we have." But he said he would consider raising the cap on the Social Security tax - currently imposed on earnings up to $97,500 - or creating a so-called doughnut hole that would reinstate the tax once income hits a certain level, as Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards has proposed.
Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, has suggested reimposing the Social Security tax on earnings above $200,000 so that upper-middle income earners - those making $97,500 to $200,000 a year - would not suffer an additional tax burden.
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