He’s a Democrat, so we can’t really be surprised. Instead of realizing that those with higher incomes pay a majority of taxes, they raise their taxes even more.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is considering a major tax hike on the rich to shore up the nation’s Social Security system.

“If we kept the payroll tax rate exactly the same but applied it to all earnings and not just the first $97,000,” Obama wrote this week in an Iowa newspaper, “we could eliminate the entire Social Security shortfall.”

Obama’s idea, which he described on the op-ed page of Friday’s Quad City Times as being “one possible option” and not a formal plan, would raise more than $1 trillion over 10 years by subjecting income of more than $97,000 to a 12.4 percent tax. Half of the tax would be paid by employees and half would be paid by employers…

Obama’s idea, however, also carries considerable political risk.

Eliminating the Social Security tax cap without changing the benefit formula could undermine support for the program among the roughly five percent of Americans who earn more than $97,000 per year.

“It would be a radical change in how the program has been designed,” said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan group that advocates a balanced budget. “It would end the contributory idea of Social Security, where you get back something for what you put in.”

Perhaps someone should reconsider Reagonomics.