Barack Obama Believes He Should Have Higher Taxes

Barack Obama was on Meet The Press today and told moderator Tim Russert that higher taxes might be needed to help Social Security. “And when you look at how we should approach Social Security, I believe that cutting retire—cutting benefits is not the right answer. I meet too many seniors all across the country who are struggling with the limited Social Security benefits that they have. That raising the retirement age is not the best option,” Obama said. “But I think that the best way to approach this is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like myself are paying a little bit more and the people who are in need are protected. That is the option that I will be pushing forward.” Obama has something called a “doughnut hole” to help protect the middle class from higher taxes. He isn’t worried about campaigning with a tax increase, since rich people are willing and wanting to pay more taxes. Obama said, “I think a lot of us who have been fortunate are willing to pay a little bit more to make sure that a senior citizen who is struggling to deal with rising property taxes or rising heating bills, that they’ve got the coverage that they need.”
Alan Cosgrove