Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley called for changing the retirement age and other entitlement reforms during a town hall meeting in Iowa on Wednesday, in the latest talks on funding limitations for Social Security and Medicare.
Haley proposed raising the retirement age for younger generations instead of restricting benefits for older Americans, but did call on limiting benefits for wealthy retirees.
“You reform entitlements, but you do it in a way where you don’t take anything away from seniors or people who are getting ready to retire. You focus on the new generation, you focus on what’s next,” said the former South Carolina governor during the latest stop in her campaign trail for president. “The first thing you do is change the retirement age of the young people coming up, so that we can try to have some sort of system for them.”
In her speech, Haley also called for expanding Medicare Advantage plans to increase competition among private health care insurers. “When it comes to Medicare, you expand Medicare packages for Medicare Advantage—make sure there is more competition, make sure there are more choices, that will actually cut down on the costs when we look at that,” she said.
Haley did not go into specifics on what age she would raise the retirement age to or which younger generation she would impose such a change to. Additionally, she did not reference which income level would see their benefits reduced.
The comments come as Democratic and Republican lawmakers argue back and forth on Social Security and Medicare limitations. In his State of the Union Address last month, President Joe Biden called out Republican lawmakers for wanting to cut the government funding programs, to which a sea of Republican lawmakers loudly exclaimed their rebuff.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) had previously introduced his controversial Rescue America Plan, which proposed the sunset of all federal legislation after five years. Scott has since amended his plan to exempt Social Security and Medicare, along with national security and other services, from his call to action.
Other lawmakers have called on the expansion of Social Security benefits and an increase in retirement age. In February, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) reintroduced a bill that would expand Social Security benefits by $2,400 a year and ensure the program is funded for the next 75 years, while a bipartisan group of senators proposed legislation that would encourage more Americans to wait until age 70 to claim Social Security benefits, in an effort to avoid claiming too early.
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