This is not disparage you, Frenchtown Dan, it is simply to point out how Obama will put conservatives in a trap. If we do not solve entitlements, the base will crumble. If we attack entitlements, the center will not hold.
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:
This is eerily similar to what’s happening in Greece. They want the Germans to bail them out but Germans would be pissed because their retirement age differs from Greece and would extend the age when they’d be qualified.
No thanks-— SS taxes were ‘confiscated’ over a steady lifetime of work. I’m eligible at age 66 for full payments-—that’s freakin’ old enough!
This is something I’ve advocated for a long time. Age 65 was set decades ago. People are living far longer now.
Actually the life expectancy in 1938 was 58 for white men, and 52 for black men. 62 for women
To keep the ratio correct from 1938, you would have to raise the retirement age to 81 years.
Part of what needs to be done, is that all non investment income should be subject to the tax. Anyone who earns less than the cutoff of $106K pays on every dime. Neither my wife nor I make to the cutoff, and so $180K (combined) is taxed at the full rate. Yet a single earner stops paying at $106. If that single earner had a non-working wife, the benefits would be the same to her.
I understand they would merely delete the number 65 and add the number 70 for those entering the system. Those in, remain as it is.
I wish Boehner would run for President.
she can travel all over and he can play poker every day....they own their own home and a second plus some land and and now have TWO sports cars.....
your husband deserves the disability but these two and millions like them....not even close...
yet the workers must keep working til age 70.
Read it, your blood will boil. These people are retiring with some dignity.
“Galveston County: A Model for Social Security Reform”
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba514
This will really motivate people to pay into the system /s.
They want us to retire at age 70? Lets make a deal...the filthy, greedy govt. stops taxing all of our investments period. Let us keep ALL of it that we save without govt. stealing any of it. Otherwise, no dice!
I like that idea. The baby boomers have been carrying 3 generations for 40 years now. Give us a break man.
This is not disparage you, Frenchtown Dan, it is simply to point out how Obama will put conservatives in a trap. If we do not solve entitlements, the base will crumble. If we attack entitlements, the center will not hold.
This is not disparage you, Frenchtown Dan, it is simply to point out how Obama will put conservatives in a trap. If we do not solve entitlements, the base will crumble. If we attack entitlements, the center will not hold.
90%?
I get SSD, and it’s HARD to qualify (or at least that was the case 13 years ago).
If there is an economically significant proportion of people getting SSD who don’t truly need it then I would agree with you.
But is there a large percentage of such people? Do you (or anyone) have any facts/statistics on this?
How about changing SS to a defined contribution instead of a defined benefit
Do away with the SS system... phase it out... and replace it with a mandatory normal/modified 401(k) account... with no option for loans. Over 30-40 years, it’ll perform better than the SS system presently. If spouse dies, account is provided to widow(er)... if single, account goes back to Treasury (incentive to marriage). Get retirement accounts out of hands of government.
Fine, in that case I am hereby giving notice that I want every cent that was paid in by me or on my behalf be returned to me. And I no longer will pay FICA taxes either. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Boehner also suggested means-testing. Look back at the original article.
None of this is going to happen. Seniors will vote to block it. Hell, even those in their 50s will vote to block it. The problem is you have to grandfather so many people in... at what point do you draw the line for the new system? You have to make the age young enough so those effected aren’t paying attention.
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