MAYA MACGUINEAS (COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET): We have to fix Social Security. It becomes insolvent in seven years. We need to look at reasonable things like means testing, raising the retirement age, lifting the payroll tax cap.
MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Yeah.
MACGUINEAS: We have to change the way the health care system is delivered to generate savings. And we have $25 trillion in tax breaks over the next decade. We could limit a lot of those and help start to close this gap.
MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Yeah, it’s a great point that you make, particularly about the Social Security age issue, because that seems like an easy one. It wouldn’t affect the people who are very close to retirement. They’re going to get what they expected. But younger people who may not even be expecting it, why not move the retirement age higher, given that we’re living longer?
MACGUINEAS: Absolutely. It could. Absolutely. It could be win-win in terms of expectations.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
MACGUINEAS: When the program started, retirement age was 65, life expectancy was 62. So it made sense. Now the retirement age is up to 67 and life expectancy is in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and growing quickly. Young people don’t think they’re going to get anything, like you just said. So if we can lock in benefits, but you are expected to work longer, assuming that you’re able to, they would come out ahead of where they think they’re going to be.
Nobody’s touching current retirees’ benefits. The AARP should stop trying to scare people and help become a part of the solution here. And we should talk about adjusting the program for the things that have changed in the way that we’re all living our lives. So that’s a great place to start.
BARTIROMO: Yeah.
MACGUINEAS: Everybody behind the scenes knows that it makes sense. It’s just that politicians keep demagoguing it when it’s a very reasonable policy.
BARTIROMO: Yeah. And by the way, I have asked [Social Security Administrator] Frank Bisignano this same question, and it seemed to me that he was thinking about that, and that was certainly a serious contender on the table.
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