MANCHESTER, N.H. — Chris Christie hopes his Republican rivals will be pressed on the issue of entitlement reform during the first GOP primary debate of 2016 Thursday night.
“We’re coming up on our sixth or seventh debate and entitlement reform has only been addressed once,” the New Jersey governor noted Wednesday during a campaign stop at a local fire station.
“Both times, the questions came to me because I’m the only one who’s put forth a plan for entitlement reform,” he added.
Christie, who’s competing in a close race for the second-place spot in Granite State polls, reminded the crowd that two of his opponents – former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and billionaire Donald Trump – stumbled over questions about the divisive issue during the last GOP debate.
“The [moderators] even followed up with [Trump] and said, ‘Mr. Trump, under Gov. Christie’s plan, people like you wouldn’t get Social Security because you make too much money,'” he said.
“[Trump] said, ‘Well I’m okay without Social Security,’ and I said, ‘Well OK, now we’ve got a start,'” Christie said, drawing a loud chuckle from one man in the audience.
“My point is, these are sophomoric answers to a big problem,” Christie said, criticizing Huckabee for his suggestion that “pimps and prostitutes are going to pay the taxes to get us out of the Social Security problem,” and Trump for promising Americans will “get so rich [they] will never have to worry about Social Security.”
“I feel like the time is necessary to put a really bright light on this,” he said.
Christie is fifth in the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings. He is slated to host two other campaign events in New Hampshire Wednesday before heading to South Carolina for the GOP debate.
