Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday called for a gradual increase in the retirement age that would not affect people who are either receiving Social Security benefits or are close to receiving them.
“The way you fix it is to deal with the demographic realities we should be celebrating, because 10 years from now you’re still going to be up and taking nourishment, right?” he said during a question and answer session at a “Politics and Eggs” event at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.
Mr. Bush, who is weighing a 2016 presidential bid, said people have to recognize that someone in their 30s “is not going to get the benefits under the current situation.”
“I think we need to raise the retirement age not for the people that are already nearing receiving Social Security or are already on it, but raise it gradually over a long period of time for people that are just entering the system,” he said. “And I think we need to do that in relatively short order.”
“And Social Security can be sustained, just as it was in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan, Tip O’Neill, Dan Rostenkowski I guess was in it, Bob Packwood, this group of, you know, very conservative, very liberal and in between forged consensus on how to sustain Social Security over the long haul,” he said.
Earlier this week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rolled out a plan in the early presidential state that included raising the retirement eligibility age for Social Security to 69 and means testing benefits to reduce payments to wealthier seniors.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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