Today marks the 76th anniversary of the first Social Security check, but you likely won’t hear any of the Republican presidential candidates marking the occasion. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and the rest of the field have only offered plans to cut Social Security benefits using the same failed ideas time and time again, including raising the retirement age and partially privatizing Social Security.
Make no mistake about it – the GOP’s failure to offer real solutions on Social Security is just one more example of how every single Republican presidential candidate would put special interests and the billionaire Koch brothers ahead of the millions of Americans that rely on earned benefits to make ends meet.
Here’s how Republican candidates would weaken Social Security:
- Ted Cruz would raise Social Security and Medicare’s eligibility ages. He’d move Medicare to a premium support system and threaten Social Security by shifting it to private accounts. As a bonus, Cruz would institute means-testing for both Security and Medicare!
- Marco Rubio believes Social Security “weakened us as a people,” so it shouldn’t come as a surprise he wants to institute means-testing on Social Security and raise the retirement age. Rubio’s also looking to partially voucherize Medicare by shifting the program to a premium-support system, which would push retirees to private plans.
- Chris Christie has proposed raising the retirement age as well as some of “the most sweeping set of changes to Social Security in recent memory.” According to the LA Times, Christie proposed means testing where “benefits would be reduced for seniors with non-Social Security income of more than $80,000 and eliminated entirely for those with non-Social Security income of more than $200,000.” Christie has also said he would raise the Medicare eligibility age and premiums for Americans with incomes over $85,000.
- If you liked Mitt Romney’s 47% moment, you probably loved Jeb Bush’s “free stuff” aloofness. Bush wants to raise the retirement age — and punish seniors who retire earlier than he wants them to. In addition to supporting Medicare means-testing — which would limit eligibility for the program — Bush also wants to shift the program toward private plans, and he’s even hinted at a “phase out.”
- “Get rid of them,” that’s Ben Carson’s “entitlements” end game. For now, Carson wants to raise the retirement age. He’d also go ahead and abolish Medicare entirely.
- “You’re gonna have to get over [reduced benefits],” if I’m elected, John Kasich told a concerned voter this fall. Why? Because Kasich would reduce Social Security benefits and cut Medicare.
Published: Jan 31, 2016