Republicans call for raising the retirement age for social security benefits trends now
While Speaker Kevin McCarthy has insisted social security cuts are off the table as part of the debt ceiling battle, some Republicans are saying it is 'unrealistic' not to touch the entitlement program.
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said Sunday that lawmakers need to discuss raising the retirement age for Americans who are currently in their 20s.
'For people who are in their 20s, their life expectancy will probably be 85 to 90,' Kennedy said on Fox News.
'Does it really make sense to allow someone who's in their 20s today to retire at 62?' he said. 'Those are the kinds of things that we should talk about, there are changes in Medicare that we should talk about.'
Medicare is one of the largest line items in the U.S. budget and is only expected to become more expensive as the population ages. President Biden in his budget released last week proposed imposing a new tax on investment income of the wealthy to extend the solvency of Medicare by 25 years.
Meanwhile in the House, GOP Rep. Nancy Mace said on CNN raising the retirement age for social security 'has to be on the table.'
Meanwhile in the House GOP Rep. Nancy Mace told CNN raising the retirement age for social security 'has to be on the table'
'We do not want to take away those that are in retirement, or those that are heading into retirement, but if we're talking about younger generations ... then that should be on the table.'
The South Carolina Republican, 45, speculated that she herself 'won't have retirement funds' because she is 'assuming that Social Security will be insolvent.'
'We do have to look at Social Security. We've got to look at spending in this country — mandatory and discretionary — if we're gonna take on fixing the Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, you name it,' Mace said. 'We've gotta get serious about it.'
GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley also said she supports raising the retirement age for younger people.
'It is unrealistic to say you're not going to touch entitlements,' Haley said on Fox News.
'The thing is you don't have to touch it for seniors and anybody near retirement. You're talking about the new generation, like my kids coming up,' she added.
Social security is currently on track to become insolvent by 2035 if Congress makes no changes. At that point the program would be able to pay out at 80 percent until 2096. Some 66 million people rely on social security checks.
And while House Republicans continue to insist they won't cut the widely popular program, there have been bipartisan meetings in the Senate to extend the life of the program.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, who is involved in the talks, told DailyMail.com last week that proposals like whether or not to raise the payroll tax cap beyond that funds the program $160,200 or raise the retirement age were 'side issues' and their main focus was
