Almost 8 in 10 would oppose raising full Social Security retirement age: poll

Nearly 8 in 10 Americans said in a new poll that they would oppose the federal government raising the full retirement age for Social Security from 67 to 70. 

In a new Quinnipiac University poll published Thursday 78 percent of respondents said they would oppose the move, while 17 percent of those surveyed said they would support it. 

In the survey, 77 percent of Republican respondents said they would oppose raising the full retirement age for social security, while 81 percent of Democrat respondents and 75 percent of independent respondents also agree with the same sentiment. 

In contrast, 18 percent of Republican respondents, 17 percent of Democrat respondents, and 16 percent of independent respondents said they would support the government raising the social security retirement age, according to the poll. 

The poll comes as Democrats and Republicans have debated on the country’s safety-net programs, such as Social Security and Medicare. 

Republicans have proposed a series of changes to the programs that include raising the required retirement age, reducing benefits for wealthier seniors, and tweaking the cost-of-living adjustments to produce long-term government savings. 

The recent battle started brewing after President Biden called out Republicans in his State of the Union address last month for wanting to sunset both Social Security and Medicare programs. 

Social Security, along with Medicare and Medicaid, makes up for nearly half of the entire federal budget, with a total annual price tag of $2.7 trillion.

When asked whether they would support raising the full retirement age for Social Security from 67 to 70 if it meant that benefits would last longer, 62 percent of respondents said they would still oppose the measure, while 30 percent of those surveyed said otherwise. 

The Quinnipiac poll of 1,795 U.S. adults was conducted March 9-13 and has an overall margin of error of 2.3 percentage points.