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Top Republican: Raise Social Security's retirement age to 70
The Hill ^

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:


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: boehner
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To: Sub-Driver

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.


61 posted on 06/29/2010 8:43:02 AM PDT by albie
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To: Sub-Driver

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!


62 posted on 06/29/2010 8:43:24 AM PDT by tflabo (Restore the Republic)
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To: Sub-Driver

This is something I’ve advocated for a long time. Age 65 was set decades ago. People are living far longer now.


63 posted on 06/29/2010 8:43:49 AM PDT by ScottinVA (The West needs to act NOW to aggressively treat its metastasizing islaminoma!)
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To: Mr. K

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.


64 posted on 06/29/2010 8:44:58 AM PDT by Ouderkirk (Democrats...the party of Slavery, Segregation, Sodomy, and Sedition)
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To: abb

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.


65 posted on 06/29/2010 8:45:00 AM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda" and its allies.)
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To: eCSMaster

I wish Boehner would run for President.


66 posted on 06/29/2010 8:45:41 AM PDT by SMARTY ("What luck for rulers that men do not think." Adolph Hitler)
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To: ilovesarah2012
my bil and his wife both got on dissability pretty easily....she can turn on the tears at a drop of a dime and both went to the same scheming lawyer....

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.

67 posted on 06/29/2010 8:45:44 AM PDT by cherry
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To: Sub-Driver
I would forfeit every bit I have put into it for the last 30 years if I could opt out now and use the income to augment my own retirement plans.
68 posted on 06/29/2010 8:46:02 AM PDT by Magnum44 (Terrorism is a disease, precise application of superior firepower is the cure)
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To: wita
Check this out. Galveston County, Texas was able to opt out of social security back in the early 1980s. The money they would have put into social security went into guaranteed annuities. Now those workers are retiring and instead of collecting about $1500/month from social security, they are living off close to $4600/month.

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

69 posted on 06/29/2010 8:46:07 AM PDT by avacado
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To: Sub-Driver

This will really motivate people to pay into the system /s.


70 posted on 06/29/2010 8:49:06 AM PDT by Lorianne
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To: DonaldC

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!


71 posted on 06/29/2010 8:49:43 AM PDT by tflabo (Restore the Republic)
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To: avacado
Let me keep my own damn money and I'll retire when I want to retire!

I like that idea. The baby boomers have been carrying 3 generations for 40 years now. Give us a break man.

72 posted on 06/29/2010 8:49:43 AM PDT by jersey117
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To: Frenchtown Dan
In one post we have just seen the way Obama plans to win the election in 2012.

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.


73 posted on 06/29/2010 8:49:56 AM PDT by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
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To: Frenchtown Dan
In one post we have just seen the way Obama plans to win the election in 2012.

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.


74 posted on 06/29/2010 8:50:08 AM PDT by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
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To: GOPJ

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?


75 posted on 06/29/2010 8:50:20 AM PDT by Miztiki
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To: Sub-Driver

How about changing SS to a defined contribution instead of a defined benefit


76 posted on 06/29/2010 8:50:23 AM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: Sub-Driver

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.


77 posted on 06/29/2010 8:51:30 AM PDT by Mashood
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To: DonaldC
Maybe those that like to think about going down this road should not sign up for it when they retire.

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.

78 posted on 06/29/2010 8:51:37 AM PDT by Ouderkirk (Democrats...the party of Slavery, Segregation, Sodomy, and Sedition)
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To: elpadre

Boehner also suggested means-testing. Look back at the original article.


79 posted on 06/29/2010 8:51:37 AM PDT by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
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To: Sub-Driver

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.


80 posted on 06/29/2010 8:51:39 AM PDT by rhombus
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