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"I favor strongly retirement savings accounts, personal savings accounts, whatever you want to call them. And I think every young taxpayer should have the ability to make an investment in their own retirement."
On Social Security, the Arizona senator says he still backs a system of private retirement accounts that President Bush pushed unsuccessfully, and disowned details of a Social Security proposal on his campaign Web site.
Sen. McCain's 2008 presidential campaign Web site takes a different view, proposing "supplementing" the existing full Social Security system with personally managed accounts. Such accounts wouldn't substitute for guaranteed payments, and they wouldn't be financed by diverting a portion of Social Security payroll taxes.
He calls for workers to have the option of investing at least 20% of their Social Security payroll taxes in private accounts.
New York Times, p. A21 Jan 11, 2000
Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who sponsored the Senate's repeal of an earnings ceiling, stressed that older Americans brought to the work place "an enormous accumulation of knowledge and talent."
"Tough decisions have to be made, including the possibility of lifting the cap on the payroll tax."
Meet the Press: Meet the Candidates 2008 series May 13, 2007