While the presidential campaign has been dominated by Iraq, any candidate for president will eventually have to discuss their proposals for Social Security reform. Most candidates have not yet taken a detailed stance, but they have given hints about their position.

The Republicans

Rudy Giuliani
Although he has not endorsed any specific legislation or offered a detailed proposal, Giuliani has voiced support for personal accounts and contends that "people should have some choice" in the way the system is handled.

John McCain
Calling Social Security an area subject to "political posturing" in his formal announcement speech, McCain has backed away from his previously strong position in favor of personal accounts. During his bid for the 2000 Republican nomination, the Senator advocated personal accounts, and he campaigned hard for Bush’s proposal in 2005. In 1999 he voted in favor of an amendment that would have allowed the Senate to consider using the budget surplus to establish personal accounts. McCain has said he will consider all options for ensuring the solvency of the system, including benefits cuts and tax hikes so long as they are part of a "compromise".

Mitt Romney
Romney has not offered a proposal for Social security reform beyond calling for leaders from both parties to come together "having a full and complete discussion of various ways to bring the costs down." One of his top economic advisors, Robert Posen helped craft Bush’s 2005 plan to reform the system through personal accounts. However, Posen also has supported tax hikes as part of a compromise.

Sam Brownback
Brownback is an avid supporter of personal accounts and in 2004 cosponsored the Sununu-Ryan plan that would have introduced system reform by allowing investment in personal accounts and would have placed limitations on the federal budget. Brownback opposes either benefit cuts or tax increases as part of a reform package. The Senator has made William Shipman his advisor on Social Security.

Mike Huckabee
A proponent of a national sales tax and the elimination of all federal and payroll taxes, Huckabee is also in favor of personal accounts and was a defender of Bush’s 2005 plan for partial privatization of the system.

Tom Tancredo
Tancredo favors personal accounts and claimed to back Bush’s 2005 plan "100%."

Ron Paul
Paul contends that Congress must stop spending in order to best fix the problem of insolvency. Paul opposes personal accounts because he believes Social Security is unconstitutional. Instead, he believes that individuals should have total control over how to invest their money and is in favor of cutting payroll taxes to allow this to happen.

Tommy Thompson
Tommy Thompson favors personal accounts, and supported Bush’s 2005 plan for reform.

The Democrats

John Edwards
Edwards does not support the creation of personal accounts, and has called Bush’s failed reform plan "a disaster." He supports raising or eliminating the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax to cover the projected shortfall but rejects increasing the age of retirement. Rather than personal accounts, Edwards believes the government should "help people save," by offering matching savings accounts outside Social Security.

Hillary Clinton
Unlike her husband who as president sought to call attention to social security’s problems, Hillary Clinton has claimed that the most recent Social Security Trustees Report shows that the system is "affordable and sustainable." She rejects the idea of personal accounts, claiming that the transition would be too costly. Instead, Clinton wants to promote other investment avenues for citizens outside Social Security.

Barack Obama
Calling Social Security both an insurance and retirement program, Obama opposes personal accounts. Denying that the system is bankrupt, he does not rule out raising the retirement age, cutting benefits or raising payroll taxes to maintain the system. Obama has proposed "Working Families Savings Accounts" on top of Social Security which would allow people earning up to $50,000 annually to invest in a retirement plan. Despite his announced position, it is interesting that one of Obama’s top economic advisers, Jeff Liebman, has supported personal accounts in the past, even coauthoring a plan for small personal accounts with McCain advisor Maya MacGuineas.

Bill Richardson
Richardson calls Social Security an insurance program and is not in favor of personal accounts. He has not offered a proposal to restore the system to solvency. He has called for "universal pensions," similar to 401(k) programs, outside the Social Security system.

Dennis Kucinich
Not only does Kucinich opposes personal accounts, he denies that the system needs any reform at all. In fact, Kucinich actually calls for increasing Social security benefits, notably canceling scheduled increases in the retirement age.

Joe Biden
Biden claims that personal accounts would only "exacerbate" the problem. He has, however, voiced support for personal accounts in addition to social security. He has not offered a proposal for restoring the system to solvency.

Chris Dodd
Dodd is opposed to personal accounts. He has voiced support for raising the cap on income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. Dodd did not support the Social Security Lockbox, and voted no in 1999 to limit debate on the amendment that would have created the lockbox. He supports investment accounts outside of the Social Security system.

Mike Gravel
Gravel advocates investing privately and supports allowing beneficiaries to leave any remaining surplus benefits in individual accounts to heirs after their death.