The Republican Study Committee, a group of 175 House Republicans, released its plan last week to slash fiscal spending in what it says is an effort to reduce the $31 trillion national debt.
Among the suggestions is raising the age at which individuals can begin claiming their full Social Security retirement benefits from age 67 to 69.
The politically sensitive proposal is sure to get a strong response from Democrats, and, as Roll Call reports, “is all but certain to appear in Democratic campaign ads.”
President George W. Bush failed in his attempt in his second term to partially privatize the system. More recently, France experienced widespread protests and social unrest earlier this year when the government of President Emmanuel Macron passed a law raising its retirement age by two years, from 62 to 64.
The report cited the Washington Post’s Editorial Board, which endorsed certain Social Security retirement reforms, such as “gradually indexing up the age, currently 67, at which people may retire at full benefits, to take account of longer retirements due to rising life expectancy; and … tweaking benefit formulas to trim how much high-income households get…”
The Post described these and other reforms as a “sensible way to reduce the Social Security gap.”
“Years of inaction and overspending have put us in this position. The RSC Budget offers a path to economic security by reducing tax and regulatory burdens, eliminating over $16 trillion in wasteful spending, and balancing the federal budget in seven years,” the committee wrote.
It claimed President Biden’s Budget would result in a 23% cut to Social Security retirement benefits, largely because it fails to address the solvency issue.
“These devastating cuts, which will occur if Congress and the White House do nothing, would leave millions of seniors unable to make ends meet and steal their ability to live with dignity and independence,” the committee added.
The last major Social Security reform occurred in 1983 and gradually raised the age to 67, effectively cutting benefits by 13%, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank.
