Bush: Retirement age should be phased in to ’68 or 70’
Jeb Bush wants to push back the retirement age for Social Security by as many as five years.
Instead of allowing Americans to collect full benefits at age 65, the former Florida governor and likely GOP presidential candidate suggested on Sunday that it should be pushed back to 68 or 70.
{mosads}“I think it needs to be phased in over an extended period of time,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“We need to look over the horizon and begin to phase in, over an extended period of time, going from 65 to 68 or 70,” he added. “And that, by itself, will help sustain the retirement system for anybody under the age of 40.”
At the same time, Bush said that he would be open to cutting back benefits for wealthy people and their beneficiaries, a reform proposal known as means testing.
“I think it ought to be considered, for sure,” Bush said.
Social Security has often been blamed for contributing to the nation’s deficit, and has been considered unsustainable, especially by Republicans.
GOP lawmakers have repeatedly talked about trying to raise the retirement age and restructure the benefit program in order to make the program more sustainable. So far, however, grand entitlement reform has remained elusive.
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