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? McCain believes that Social Security is failing because it
is raided to fund other government programs.
? He supports allowing workers to invest a portion of their
payroll tax in private accounts which they would manage
themselves.
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• Unlike his predecessor and some of his major
opponents, Barack Obama has declared his firm opposition to
the idea of privatization of the social security structure
saying that it would create more losers with no assets to rely
on during retirement.
• In his opinion, the best method of fixing social
security and other entitlement programs is to reverse the
policies which have 'ruled the roost' under the Bush
administration. In this way, not only would the social
security be stable and solvent for most of the American
citizens but would also result in tax policies which are
favorable for many of the middle-income groups in the
country.
• Barack Obama also rules out the stock market option
for social security saying that to encourage individuals to
pursue a high-risk and high-investment strategy would be an
inadvisable course of action. Instead, individuals should
invest only those savings in the stock market which are not a
part of the social security.
• According to Obama, there is nothing wrong with the
fundamental model of social security but there is a long-term
problem of the number of retirees exceeding the number of
current workers. This can be rectified by raising the limit of
payroll tax for wealthy individuals and exempting the middle
class to the extent possible.
• To save the social security from becoming bankrupt,
Obama feels that one option of preserving social security is
to opt for a bipartisan solution which would not only enable
the social security fund to remain solvent for the next many
years to come but would also prevent its privatization.
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