President Obama campaigned for raising tax rates on households making more than $250,000 a year, but he has now proposed allowing Bush-era tax rates to expire for households with more than $400,000 a year. In talks with House Speaker John Boehner, Obama also reportedly accepted a Republican proposal to cut Social Security by using a different formula to calculate cost-of-living increases. “He’s more serious about that than I would like to believe. The last thing you want to do is cut Social Security benefits,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told radio host Ed Schultz on Tuesday.
He cited a new Washington Post/ABC News poll that showed a clear majority of Americans, 74 percent, would go along with Obama’s initial proposal to raise taxes on those with incomes over $250,000. The same poll found 60 percent of Americans said it is unacceptable to change the way Social Security benefits are calculated so that benefits increase with inflation at a slower rate than they do now. Sanders noted that the White House as recently as three weeks ago said that Social Security was off the table in the year-end deficit talks. “I want him to keep that promise,” Sanders said. “I hope the president stays strong.”