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Boehner: Raise Social Security Age To 70 – With Video



Jun 29, 2010 5 Comments ›› Pat Dollard

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The Hill:

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 Sentinel at the Gate

    Boner,

    Raise it to 92, Byrd’s age when he “checked out of the net”. This is the logical Republican solution – die at your workplace as opposed to the Democrat solution – don’t work at all, just suck the teat.

    It is apparent, both parties are without a fucking brain. The best solution is to kill Social Security and make everyone responsible for his/her own retirement. This albatross has hung around our necks too damn long at a cost 9 times what it was originally estimated. And now it pays people who have never worked or are not American citizens.

    This Government Ponzi Scheme needs to be killed.

  • http://www.dirtydozensbunker.com Sanders

    Why in the hell would Boner even go there, right now? The Republicans must like cutting their own throats before elections…

    • The Sentinel at the Gate

      Self inflicted sucking chest wound.

  • jasjfarrell

    Although working up to 70 year old sounds good, what it really means is that working Americans and their employer will pay a total of 15% of their incomes in social security and medicare taxes for a longer period of time.

    The government will do what they have always done, raid the social security trust fund for whatever and squander the money on idiotic spending.

    Make the IRA and Roth IRA unlimited and let people save their own money tax free.

  • MarkF

    I wonder if those in congress will volunteer to delay thier retirements??