Pete Buttigieg on Social Security Democratic Presidential Challenger; IN Mayor

Would establish $90/day benefit for long-term care

The plan also includes reforms to Social Security, including increasing benefits to 125% of the federal poverty limit to people who worked or were a caregiver for 30 years. He proposes paying for it by raising the income cap on the taxes that pay for social security benefits. Currently, social security taxes only apply to income up to $133,000. He would apply social security taxes to individual incomes above $250,000 to maintain the program's solvency.

Double Social Security's payroll-tax cap to $250,000

Mayor Pete, as he's often called, said he'd like to increase the cap of income eligible for payroll taxes from what it is now at $132,900 to about $250,000, while speaking at an AARP Forum in Iowa. "I have a very personal stake in making sure that Social Security and Medicare are there when you retire and when I retire, and if you look at the numbers, that won't happen without some adjustments," he said.

Other Democrats have suggested similar strategies. Fellow Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, proposed subjecting anyone with income over $250,000 to the payroll tax, which would create a gap between the current tax cap and the new one. That gap would narrow over time as the cap naturally lifted every year.