McCain Backtracks on Social Security Tax Hike
EmailABC News’ Teddy Davis and Gregory Wallace Report: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., hammered Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., on Tuesday for proposing higher Social Security taxes. The presumptive Republican nominee neglected to mention, however, that he was open to a similar approach in 2005.
"The Social Security tax cap, he wants to raise from $105,000 to I think $200,000," McCain told Bloomberg News’ Peter Cook. "Do you know how many employers, small-business people that would mean a 12-percent increase in their Social Security tax?"
" I mean, this is just — Senator Obama wants to raise taxes," he continued. "I want to keep tax cuts in place. And I think that it’s important that in a time of real crisis, economic crisis in America, the last thing we want to do is raise people’s taxes now."
On a Feb., 23, 2005, edition of "Meet the Press," NBC’s Tim Russert asked McCain if he would support "as part of the solution to Social Security’s solvency problem, that you lift the cap so that you would pay payroll tax, Social Security tax, not just on the first $90,000 of your income, but perhaps even higher?"
“As part of a compromise," said McCain, "I could, and other sacrifices, because we all know that it doesn’t add up until we make some very serious and fundamental changes.”
Two years later, during a May 13, 2007, appearance on "Meet the Press," Russert asked McCain if he was still open to lifting the Social Security tax cap as part of a compromise.
The Arizona senator said that he is opposed to tax increases while acknowledging that "tough decisions" would be needed as part of a compromise.
"Am I opposed to tax increases?" said McCain. "Yes. But we’ve got to sit down together and figure out what our options are, and tough decisions have to be made, Republicans and Democrats. And I know how to do that."
Asked about the 2005 remark, a McCain spokesman acknowledged the tension with his current position while arguing that the Arizona senator’s criticism of his Democratic rival is still valid because McCain has spoken out against higher Social Security taxes as a 2008 White House hopeful.
“The contrast here couldn’t be more clear, and pulling one dated quote out of thousands won’t change it," McCain adviser Brian Rogers told ABC News. "John McCain believes we can fix Social Security without raising taxes. Senator Obama has made clear his intention to uncap the payroll tax, raising taxes while failing to restore the program’s long-term solvency.”
To put the retirement program on sounder footing, Obama has suggested imposing the 12.4 percent Social Security tax on more income.
At present, the tax is only imposed on roughly the first $100,000 of income.
In a 2007 op-ed written for an Iowa newspaper, Obama floated the possibility of completing eliminating the Social Security tax cap.
More recently, Obama and his advisers have said on multiple occasions that he would continue to exempt income between roughly $100,000 and around $200,000 from the Social Security tax while imposing it on income above $200,000.
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Who is McCain?
He has flip flopped on almost all the issues.
He definitely isn’t the 2000 McCain but now he is the flip flopper McCain in 2008.
Posted by: Alan | June 10, 2008, 7:41 pm 7:41 pm
McCain wants to privatize social security which is what the vast majority of Americans do NOT want.
Posted by: Stacey | June 10, 2008, 7:42 pm 7:42 pm
He said that all options needed to be looked at before a decision could be made. What is wrong with that statement? Because that is exactly what Barack Hussein Obama has to do as well. So you and the MSM stop berating Senator McCain.
Why don’t you tell me what you would do? What is your solution – And just how would you put it in place and make it work?
I’ll wager you cannot answer this because you don’t know how.
Posted by: CalifLady36 | June 10, 2008, 7:48 pm 7:48 pm
I understand McCain flip-flopped on estate taxes, too.
I don’t know how many more flip-flops that straight-talk express can take without voiding the bus’s warranty.
Posted by: Paul | June 10, 2008, 8:10 pm 8:10 pm
McCain is a real man.
Obama is a puppet of the far left.
That’s all one needs to know!
Posted by: Soetoro No! | June 10, 2008, 8:13 pm 8:13 pm
tomdavie – he also never said he wanted to scrap social security, and he never said he wanted to bomb Pakistan.
Arguing with Republicans and their supporters would be more fun if those guys knew what they were talking about.
Oh, and the Pakistan thing has actually been done since the time Obama recommended it… by the Bush administration. We ran three separate strikes in northern Pakistan, and in one of them have a “high confidence” of hitting our target.
McCain, like Clinton, called Obama naive for suggesting this, though a flip later was saying he would follow bin Laden “to the gates of Hell.” Well, bin Laden isn’t in Hell. He’s in Pakistan. McCain basically echoed Obama’s idea, which he previously had characterized as naive.
I wonder if McCain can even track all these flip-flops.
Posted by: Paul | June 10, 2008, 8:15 pm 8:15 pm
By the way, the distinction here (though I’m sure McCain supporters won’t care) is that Obama doesn’t “want” to bomb Pakistan. If actionable intelligence pointed to bin Laden’s location, he wants Pakistan to arrest bin Laden.
Its only if Pakistan was unable or unwilling to do so that Obama suggested we not let bin Laden slip away… again.
Posted by: Paul | June 10, 2008, 8:17 pm 8:17 pm
Why won’t Obama agree to town hall debates? ANSWER: Because he’s a bumbling idiot who doesn’t know what he believes until his puppet masters have put it in front of him on the TelePrompter.
What an empty suit!
Posted by: Soetoro No! | June 10, 2008, 8:23 pm 8:23 pm
tomdavie: The US has already sent a few missiles into the NW Frontier of Pakistan. It is not an area for troops or tanks to go into. Even the Pakistan military dread it. Look at some pictures of the terrain. Treacherous and that is why Bin Laden and/or his henchmen are camping out there. There are now so many rumored tapes going around concerning Obama that they would fill a media library. Even Rush Limbaugh will not touch that Sinclair Lewis garbage because it is such an amateur job and there is not much he will avoid. But, did McCain really misspeak and say that he would veto beer?!
Posted by: KiwiTricia | June 10, 2008, 8:25 pm 8:25 pm
I would like mc-more-war to answer one question. Why did it take him so long to denounce the hagee endorsement? There are a lot of Catholic voters that will remember this in November. Obama 2008 will be GREAT!!!
Posted by: pt | June 10, 2008, 8:34 pm 8:34 pm
The thing that’s funny about Soetoro’s posts are that by trying to convince us all that Obama is a puppet, we’re reminded of how puppets look and move… which naturally makes one think of McCain.
I realize that’s a cheap shot. McCain lost a lot of arm movement when his arms were broken and then presumably never set correctly the entire time he was a POW. But still… McCain supporters, I suggest you not stick to the puppet attack.
Posted by: Paul | June 10, 2008, 8:36 pm 8:36 pm
pt – I know. I’m Catholic. I try to not get involved in those kinds of stories – the guilt by association crap. But I couldn’t help noticing that McCain only rejected Hagee after a different comment was unearthed on tape. The implication was that McCain was okay with the whore comment about the Catholic Church.
Someone should remind the McCain folks that Catholics are 22 percent of the population, and I believe vote more reliably than average – meaning we do represent something like a quarter of the electorate.
Posted by: Paul | June 10, 2008, 8:39 pm 8:39 pm
Paul,
I agree with your point of guilt by association is crap. But, mc-more-war knew what he said and still would not denounce it because he knew a lot of people look to hagee for advice. I used to have respect for mccain but since the 2000 election he’s become a pandering wimp. Obama 2008!!!
Posted by: pt | June 10, 2008, 8:45 pm 8:45 pm
In other words McCain is a hypocrite, woop-de-DAMN-do!
Posted by: patriot | June 10, 2008, 8:54 pm 8:54 pm
sotorolamo or whatever your name is
he has agreed to town hall meetings they are working it out… stop spreading your lies
and mccain flip flops more then a fish out of water
please this guys running on experience? lol to quote him
“hes hte change candidate:
Posted by: bhrandon | June 10, 2008, 9:20 pm 9:20 pm
I think Obama said it very well today.
When talking about taxes and comparing McCain to George Bush, that isn’t fair — to Bush.
What does McCain stand for? Its hard to follow his changing position without a scorecard. One position he hasn’t changed, though, is his intent to give billions in tax breaks to the big oil companies, the ones premiering the new price hike horrors at your friendly neighborhood gas station.
Defeat McCain in ’08.
Posted by: Marie33 | June 10, 2008, 9:22 pm 9:22 pm
Lets abolish ssi. I did the right thing and saved my money. And the money I paid in is my money and I want that back.
SSI is and will never be a retirement System It is a safety net. So you better start saving or you will never retire.
Posted by: Dakota | June 10, 2008, 10:15 pm 10:15 pm
@Dakota: Of course, you are right, that it is a safety net and people should just save on their own. However, the problem is what happens when they don’t? The rest of us will have to bail out the ones who didn’t save and that may be more expensive the Social Security (which is in essence a pooled, mandatory saving). The alternative, homeless and poor elderly, is not an acceptable option.
Posted by: MIguy | June 10, 2008, 10:25 pm 10:25 pm
Poor McCain- one year he’s for something, the next year, when it suits him, he’s against it. Unfortunately, he’s done this with many, many policy ideas and positions. Such is the nature of an indecisive and insecure politician, always reshaping himself to the whims of the electorate. Shameful. At least Obama’s positions, be they right or wrong, are amazingly consistent. His vision of America, again be it right or wrong, is one that favors the poor and the middle class at the expense of the wealthy. If this ideology suits your personal financial situation, then vote for Obama. If you are part of the few of us in the super -wealthy group, or a mega corporation like the oil companies, then you might want to vote for McCain. Of course, you never know what you’re ultimately going to get with McCain, because he might change his mind, or as he is want to do so often, take direction from the lobbyists that have propped him up in office. He is and always has been a puppet of the lobbyists, even through the current election cycle. He needs their money and support, as no one else wants to help him.
As they said in the signature line in the movie Minority Report- “Can you see?”
Posted by: Tim | June 10, 2008, 10:31 pm 10:31 pm
So let me get this straight. McCain’s campaign says that the reason it doesn’t matter that McCain changed his position is that previously, he wasn’t running for President, but now he is? So when was he telling the truth, then or now?
Whereas Obama, in the face of a Social Security financial crisis, consistently proposes a “tough” plan that raises some taxes on the highest earners but STILL exempts those earning over about $100k from being taxed on all their income, unlike the rest of us, who pay taxes on every dollar we earn? Meantime, Social Security is about to go broke for the common folks who need it most (remember the “lock box”?).
But I guess if you marry an heiress, like McCain did, you don’t really have to worry about Social Security being there for you.
Posted by: Keith | June 10, 2008, 10:37 pm 10:37 pm
Obama couldn’t pass a background check to work for the government with his connections.
Obama connections to ayres, wright, father pfleger, rezko, kamidi a hamas supporter.
Posted by: david | June 10, 2008, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm
John McCain:
Do you think there is a problem with Social Security? Where will you find the money and/or cut the outflow of cash?
During the last 20 years, the Gross Domestic Product — the nations wealth — has doubled in this country. Somehow the wealthy have received ALL of the benefit of this and the middle class has received NONE.
So when it comes to shoring up Social Security, Obama has made a constructive suggestion, taking off the make-no-more-contributions limit that applies only to the wealthiest of Americans.
Where does John McCain want to get the money? Not from the wealthy. From the struggling middle class, that’s where!
Posted by: conscience | June 10, 2008, 11:00 pm 11:00 pm
To Jake Tapper
Obama is the one who flip flopped and showed hypocricy.
Obama went after Clinton for changing her position on social security taxes
Obama is the one changing positons. First he said he was for doing away with the cap then changed his positon to 100,000 to 200,000.
McCain only said he knew there would have to be negotiations to get a deal done.
Obama is the one who laid down a marker went after Clinton.
But somehow the media bashes McCain.
This is not a democracy. MSNBC is the Obama channel.
The media is so in the tank for Obama it is like Russia controlled media when Putin when he was there and now his lacky.
Posted by: david | June 10, 2008, 11:02 pm 11:02 pm
After I read this.. I think about it every time I see McCain… McCain could actually be much worse than Bush.
“Will McCain, who finished 894th out of 899 at the Naval Academy and who lost five jets, return competence to the White House? To paraphrase Oscar Wilde (and, no, Oscar was never a fighter pilot), to lose one plane over Vietnam may be regarded as a heroic tragedy; to lose five planes here and there looks like carelessness.”
Posted by: jim | June 10, 2008, 11:28 pm 11:28 pm
@MV: Hasselbeck is the feel good story for the View. She makes us all feel good that there is someone dumber on the planet than we are.
Posted by: MIguy | June 10, 2008, 11:35 pm 11:35 pm
Hannah,
You are so sad. Obama is ahead in the polls and is ahead in Dollars raised— You know, the same position Hillary was in before this process started. The difference is, Obama is smarter than Hillary is and will run circles around Old Man McCain— Just like he did with Old Lady Hillary.
Posted by: DemsUnited | June 11, 2008, 1:20 am 1:20 am
Huckabee or Mit Romney would have been far better than McCain as the Rep nominee.His military background aside,McCain is too flawed a candidate.Anyway he is still the presumptive nominee though i doubt that can be changed.
Posted by: Independent | June 11, 2008, 3:10 am 3:10 am
I bet you that if millions marched against the war in Iraq, McCain would jump to the front of the line and claim he was also against the war and would end it if he became President. This guy will say anything to get elected. What’s next…oh, if he can find enough votes, he’ll say he’s for talking to Iran, N Korea, Cuba, the devil without any preconditions.
Posted by: Jake | June 11, 2008, 7:19 am 7:19 am
McCain has a better tax plan than Obama. He’s offering almost $3600 increase per child per family. That’s huge for young families. He also has a better estate tax plan. First 5 million goes free, than taxed at a flat rate of 15%. Obama’s estate tax is taxable after the first million. Obama’s plan doesn’t compare.
Posted by: bluebird | June 11, 2008, 8:03 am 8:03 am
It’s becoming ever clearer who is the real change candidate. McCain flips his principles on just about anything and everything, practically on a daily basis. I mean c’mon… flipping on the torture issue was simply too weird! Either he a) doesn’t think anyone will notice, b) doesn’t believe anyone will care or, c) he’s losing his memory.
Posted by: pt | June 11, 2008, 8:34 am 8:34 am
Yesterday, McCain while speaking to a group of “small businesses” he said he would “veto any beer”, then corrected himself by say he would veto any bill. I guess he was thinking about his wife’s beer business as a “small business” that he wants to give tax breaks. Yeah, his wife’s business is a small business just like my local pizza parlor or my grocery store…yeah, guess these local business owners are rich too like his wife…sure.
Posted by: Jake | June 11, 2008, 10:26 am 10:26 am
Does McCain ever say anything that he doesn’t contradict days, months or years later? In 2004, the Republicans screamed “flip flop! Flip Flop!” about John Kerry. Now they want us to believe that flip flopping on issues is a strength. The ultimate flip flop, indeed.
Posted by: AppeaseThis | June 11, 2008, 1:11 pm 1:11 pm
The guy is full of hot air! I can’t believe what I just heard. The lives of our troops are not important. Getting them back to their families is not important…One life compared to 20 taken is the most important thing in Iraq. Shame on you…one life compromised in this cooked up war is not worth anything. I wish he knows how despicable he sounds.
This is a good example of why this guy is not fit to lead this country let alone to understand how Social Security works!!
Posted by: Dan | June 11, 2008, 1:51 pm 1:51 pm
Yep, McCain can promise to not raise Social Security taxes but solve its looming crisis. But where is his solution for it. Will he raise retirement age to 70? Will he cut benefits paid? Will he privatize it which turns retirees benefits into a gambling on stocks proposition? What will he do?
Posted by: Lydia | June 12, 2008, 1:47 am 1:47 am
david:
You hit the nail right on the head!
Excellent, well informed, post!
Posted by: reaganfan | June 12, 2008, 4:10 pm 4:10 pm
Republicans use racist fear of the black man while they continue to screw over whites and everyone else as they laugh all the way to the bank.
Yep, republicans are counting on whites to ignore 7 years of getting screwed without vaseline because they think fear of blacks will trump any problems they have with bush/cheney and mccain.
Posted by: geevil | June 13, 2008, 12:52 am 12:52 am
Paul said “McCain, like Clinton, called Obama naive for suggesting this, though a flip later was saying he would follow bin Laden “to the gates of Hell.” Well, bin Laden isn’t in Hell. He’s in Pakistan.”
I’ve been to Pakistan, confusing it with hell is an honest mistake.
Posted by: t-bone | June 13, 2008, 11:05 am 11:05 am
Obama has been very clear about the principle of solving the ss problem: Lift the cap for paying ss taxes so that everyone, not just working folks, pay the taxes. Problem solved–no other changes need be made.
A recent analysis shown on cnn showed people earning under $66,000 per year will pay SUBSTANTIALLY less tax under Obama’s plan. Up to $200,000 there was no difference between Obama and McCain but over $200,000 families will pay substantially less under McCain. Same old same old–take care of the rich.
Posted by: DuaneBidoux | June 13, 2008, 7:12 pm 7:12 pm
Social Security is a poor mans tax, but it should be paid by all for all income levels. The rich should not be able to draw a max amount of SS but less as there retirement income rises. The SS amount should be based on the previous years tax return earnings. It was never intended as a sole support for retirees. But thanks to the liberals and the idea that the Government can take care of us it has been hijacked.
Posted by: Neal | June 14, 2008, 1:35 pm 1:35 pm
McCain = BUSH and America can not afford another 4 years of BUSH..
Posted by: lucky | June 16, 2008, 9:00 pm 9:00 pm
McCain has given even flip-flopping a bad name. It is one thing to occasionally change one’s mind due to changed circumstances. But it is another to not only keep changing one’s mind, but also vehemently deny the related statements that are video-taped or written. Not a good quality for one who wants to lead the free world.
Posted by: ANNE | June 20, 2008, 5:55 pm 5:55 pm