Social Security and Medicare: Where Republican candidates say about the future of retirement benefits

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(NewsNation) — While President Joe Biden vowed to strengthen Medicare and called for “protecting and strengthening” Social Security, the future of retirement benefits has exposed a rift in opinion and policy among the 2024 Republican presidential candidates.

The candidates are split on whether to call for changes to the programs; reducing the benefits afforded to retired Americans is very unpopular, but so are tax hikes on high earners proposed to keep the programs afloat.

Ahead of the 2024 election, NewsNation is committed to covering the issues that matter most to voters so they can make the most informed choices possible at the polls. To that end, we have broken down the political views of each candidate in our voter guide.

Here’s a comparative look at the candidates’ policy positions on the future of retirement benefits for Americans:

Donald Trump

The former president told Republicans in Congress not to cut “a single penny” from Medicare or Social Security, encouraging Republicans to focus their funding cuts in other areas.
Trump has opposed raising taxes to support the programs and has not spelled out exactly how he would keep them solvent.
In a campaign statement, Trump said he would reduce the cost of prescription drugs and health insurance premiums, saying he “will always protect” Medicare, Social Security, and patients with pre-existing conditions.
As part of his crackdown on gender-affirming care, Trump declared that health care providers that offer transitional hormones or surgery be blocked from receiving Medicaid and Medicare dollars.

Ron DeSantis

The Florida governor said he has ruled out reducing current Social Security benefits for current retirees or those nearing retirement age; however, he’s open to cuts for younger Americans.
“Anybody who’s on Social Security, we’re going to make it work for you, so don’t worry about benefit cuts,” DeSantis said while campaigning in New Hampshire.
When it comes to benefit cuts on the younger generations, DeSantis said, “Talking about making changes for people in their 30s or 40s so that the program’s viable, that’s a much different thing.”
DeSantis said he does not support the privatization of Social Security and does not want to increase the retirement age, so long as life expectancy continues to decline.
DeSantis, however, has not specified what changes he would make to the programs or released specific plans.

Nikki Haley

The former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador says Social Security and Medicare spending is unsustainable and proposed entitlement changes for young people to prevent the ultimate insolvency of the programs.
Haley believes older Americans should not see cuts to their benefits and promised to keep programs intact for people who are in their 40s or older.
“It is unrealistic to say you’re not going to touch entitlements,” Haley said. “The thing is you don’t have to touch it for seniors and anybody near retirement. You’re talking about the new generation, like my kids coming up.”
Haley received some pushback after taking a controversial stand on raising the retirement age for young adults “coming into the system” in their 20s “so that it matches life expectancy.”
Haley has repeatedly called for the retirement age for younger people to be raised above age 65, but didn’t have an exact age for what the retirement age should be.
Haley has also advocated for expanding Medicare Advantage plans, in which private companies offer plans that are reimbursed by the government for care, to drum up competition.
She has also proposed limiting benefits for wealthier Americans as part of entitlement reform but has not specified details.

Vivek Ramaswamy

The biotech entrepreneur has said he would not touch Social Security or Medicare benefits, saying, “In a shrinking economy, we should not cut entitlements.”
Ramaswamy suggested he would save the Social Security program from becoming insolvent through drastic spending cuts and reductions in the federal workforce and pulling back on foreign military and economic aid.
He even suggested cutting the federal workforce in half by firing each employee whose Social Security number ends in an odd number.
“We’re working within the last window I believe we will have to actually fix this problem while still leaving Social Security and Medicare benefits for current seniors intact,” Ramaswamy said.
In the third GOP presidential debate, Ramaswamy didn’t directly answer the question of whether he’d make any changes in the retirement age.
Ramaswamy doesn’t agree with plans to sunset Social Security but says “it comes from a good place.”

Chris Christie

Christie said that Social Security and Medicare cuts are a necessary “political risk” in today’s economy and vowed not to shy away from entitlement reform.
Christie supports raising the retirement age for people currently in their 40s or younger and wants to end Social Security benefits for high earners.
The former New Jersey governor proposed means testing for benefits, meaning that only people under a certain income threshold would be eligible to receive them. But he didn’t specify where that eligibility threshold would be in his plan.
At the November RNC debate in Miami, Christie took aim at “rich people” and said they “should not be collecting Social Security.”
“I don’t know if Warren Buffett is collecting Social Security, but if he is, ‘Shame on you,’” Christie said. “You shouldn’t be taking the money.”
Christie said raising the benefit eligibility age for younger Americans would give them time to plan.
“We can make real savings,” Christie said, “by playing with the eligibility age for younger people.”

Asa Hutchinson

Upon launching his campaign, the former Arkansas governor told PBS NewsHour, “We have got to protect Social Security and Medicare.”
“We need to protect Social Security for our retirees who have paid into it,” he said. “They have earned that payment in terms of the latter years of their life. And so that’s important that we keep it sound and full of integrity, and that we don’t start chopping it up.”
Hutchinson does not support raising the retirement age to buoy the programs, saying, “I don’t think that lifting their retirement age, whenever their body can wear out on some of those tough manual labor jobs, is the right way.”
Instead, Hutchinson suggested that people who begin claiming Social Security benefits early should be allowed to continue working. By continuing to earn a paycheck, the New York Times reports, workers would keep paying into the system through payroll deductions, increasing the program’s funding.
“Those people who are aged 62 and want to take Social Security and retire, they shouldn’t be penalized by the government for working,” he said. “That could add a million people back into our workforce who want to work, and they could get their Social Security benefit, and they could work at the same time.”
Hutchinson floated the establishment of a bipartisan commission, a plan reminiscent of Reagan’s approach in the early 1980s, that would be tasked with making tough decisions on the funding of the entitlement programs in a less politically charged atmosphere, USA Today reported.
In 2018, he signed into law legislation to continue the Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion, which imposed a work requirement on thousands of participants, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.