Nikki Haley unleashed on Ron DeSantis at Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate, calling his style “demeaning” and saying he was lying “because he’s losing.”
Ms. Haley, a former South Carolina governor, was defending her stance that calls for raising the retirement age for younger workers to eventually claim Social Security benefits.
“They should plan on their retirement age being increased,” she said during a presidential debate face-off with the Florida governor, who seemed to rule out retirement-age increases, at least for now.
When Mr. DeSantis blasted Ms. Haley for her position, she lashed out, saying he was distorting what she said.
“You’re so desperate,” she said. “Ron’s lying because Ron’s losing.”
She said Social Security will go bankrupt in a decade and needs significant changes to extend its solvency. Those include limiting cost-of-living increases and reducing benefits of wealthy Americans, as well as adjusting the retirement age for workers currently in their 20s.
Mr. DeSantis said that’s not fair to people who have paid into the system and were promised an income.
He said the smaller cost-of-living adjustments would mean seniors getting less money “while your dollars are going to pay the pensions of Ukrainian bureaucrats.”
He did not, however, offer a solution to the looming bankruptcy. Instead, he said he would try to bring down overall inflation to keep Americans’ costs low.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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