Posted on 06/29/2010 8:23:18 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Top Republican: Raise Social Security's retirement age to 70 By Michael O'Brien - 06/29/10 10:50 AM ET
A Republican-held Congress might look to raise the retirement age to 70, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested Monday.
Boehner, the top Republican lawmaker in the House, said that raising the retirement age by five year, indexing benefits to the rate of inflation and means-testing benefits would make the massive entitlement program more solvent.
"We're all living a lot longer than anyone ever expected," Boehner said in a meeting with the editors of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "And I think that raising the retirement age -- going out 20 years, so you're not affecting anyone close to retirement -- and eventually getting the retirement age to 70 is a step that needs to be taken."
The GOP leader said that Social Security was the most important entitlement to reform, though he also pledged that Republicans would bring legislation to the floor to repeal and replace the healthcare reforms passed earlier this year if the GOP wins back control of the House this fall.
But Boehner also floated several other reforms to Social Security, paired with raising the retirement age, to make it more solvent. Boehner said that benefits should be tied to increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) instead of wage inflation, and he suggested reducing or eliminating benefits to Americans with a "substantial non-Social Security income" while retired.
"We just need to be honest with people," he said. "I'm not suggesting it's going to be easy, but I think if we did those three things, you'd pretty well solve the problem."
Republican have made cutting spending and reforming entitlement programs a key part of their 2010 campaign message.
Watch the entirety of Boehner's explanation below:
The absolute best solution is to allow people to opt out of Social Security with the provision that the same percentage of money is contributed by them and their employer into a retirement account that they cant touch until a certain age.
...had the SS contributions been actually invested (the trust fund) instead of being SPENT, we would not be in the problem we are in. Interesting the Bush idea was what, to take a minuscule percentage of contributions and invest them, and the screaming from the leftists, drowned out reality, common sense, and the right thing to do.
Oh sure...No problem. Our economy and standard of living are going in the toilet, and SS for our elderly has been looted by D.C. politicians.....No problem.
Will this corrupt government career hack be putting off his lottery style tax paid government retirement pension until he is 70 years old? Has has he come out against corrupt government unions and the endless obscene government tax paid retirement pensions, that are breaking the tax payers?
How about that?
Infant Mortality (/1000) 6.0 13.6 5.8 5.5
Life Expectance 77.3 71.3 (>80?)+ (>80)+
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/32/1/23.pdf
Do you have a link that supports these as being Genetic rather than environmental choice?
After the stock market plunged during the summer of 2008 I actually had lefties tell me... see, see, see we can’t trust social security to the market. I said, you’d rather trust politicians to hold your wallet?
And yet old program Fed and State workers retire after 30 years at 80% salary that we pay for in addition to our SS payments? Let’s start cutting unionized pensions first.
Several other items to mention. Stop robbing the trust fund to spend on other things. Stop paying people who never paid into the system. Raise the wage limit. Allow people to retire at the same ages as now, with reduced benefits, if the age must be raised to 70.
I think he mentioned that this would only apply to people who are 20 or more years from retirement. Gradually phase out the ponzi scheme in favor of an actual retirement system.
Please point out to me where I said there was a trust fund. There never was one. It has always been a Ponzi scheme.
What I said is for the last 70 years, excess FICA taxes collected were turned over to the general fund and spent on other things, not invested. As of this year, the Ponzi is upside down. There are no excess FICA revenues to hide the size of the deficit any longer, and infact, SS now adds to the deficit because we have to borrow additional money to pay the shortfall. And it is only going to get worse with each passing year.
Why don’t we just euthanize everyone born before 1950? Save money, and eliminate a lot of those pesky conservatives? It’s a win-win!
While at the same time government bureaucrats are retiring at 50-55 years old on tax paid, lottery style government retirmeent pensions.
You're going after the people government is screwing over?
LOL!
Yes.
I also don't think government bureaucrats should be able to collect "pensions" at 55.
The same people who have been voting for the politicians who have been stealing money from them all their lives are going to be screaming like stuck pigs when the bill finally comes due.
It sucks that the government has stolen our money from us all our lives, and lied about someday giving some of it back.
It's just the way things are. The alternative is 80-90% tax burden on those few suckers who still have to work for a living.
I'll put you down as yet another "conservative" who believes the government owes you something.
It is one thing to “means test” someone getting a benefit from the Government that they had no part in funding, but to steal money and then deny the person the benefit they were self funding is outrageous.
He should.
I dont want to wait until Im wearing diapers to retire.
So, what is the solution then? An ever-increasing tax burden for everyone else who wasn't lucky enough to be born before the ponzi scheme crashed of its own weight?
Sorry, but older folk are going to have to feel the same pain the younger folk are going to go through, unless you want to see actual intergenerational warfare.
Funny you say that, since my son, who is STILL IN DIAPERS, is already in debt to pay for your retirement.
We’re not dying young enough.
The solution is gradual increase in the retirement age, as I noted upthread.
>> Newt Gingrich.
>> There, I said it!
If only there was a vaccination for the disease he caught in DC. I won’t disagree, however, with the energy and capability you mentioned.
Funny you should mention Newt because I was thinking of another game changer — Palin. Regardless of our individual opinion, she’s also a notable force in politics that can disrupt the suicidal flow of American politics. An amalgamation of the two personalities would be fun.
Well then, by your way of thinking, all of the money I paid in since 1964 went to your parent’s retirement.
Look I think the whole thing stinks. I don’t think there should be Social Security in the first place. If I had all of the money I’ve paid into it, I could have retired years ago.
It’s legalized theft.
Heck, have SS kick in the day you die. Then the system will be close to solvent in a few decades - maybe.
I’m taking mine the day I’m eligible, assuming I live that long.
It pretty much did...
Look, I'm not actually disagreeing with you. I'm concerned about my own son's future as well as my own (I'm only 32). I think that the pain of reforming SS has to be spread around to all of us.
Nobody alive today had anything to do with this mess, but we're the ones around that have to clean it up. We can either make some harsh decisions, or we can sit around farting rainbows all day hoping it fixes itself.
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