When asked how to reform the federal government’s biggest safety-net programs, there’s a clear division between the Republican presidential candidates who hold elected office and the outsiders.
At a CNBC-sponsored debate Wednesday night, Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Gov. Jeb Bush called for changes to Medicare and Social Security such as raising the retirement age or requiring higher-income seniors to pay more. While emphasizing that the changes could apply only to future retirees, the seasoned politicians said such reforms are necessary to put the programs on firm financial footing.
The outsider candidates, on the other hand, had different ideas for Medicare and Social Security.
Ben Carson said the money spent on Medicare should instead go to health savings accounts or other “private-sector things.” Carly Fiorina agreed with ideas from the career politicians, but emphasized that zero-based budgeting should be used to discern how federal dollars are being spent.
And Donald Trump insisted that simply improving the economy and bringing more jobs from overseas would do the trick.
“It’s very simple,” Trump said. “We’re going to make a really dynamic economy from what we have right now, which is not at all dynamic. We’re going to bring jobs back from China, we’re going to bring jobs back from Mexico … we’re going to save Social Security and Medicare.”
Other candidates disagreed with that analysis, saying it’s a problem stemming from too many Americans collecting benefits and too few paying into the program, an issue that arose from the 1950s baby boom.
“It’s not Republicans’ fault, it’s not Democrats’ fault,” Paul said. “It’s your grandparents’ fault for having too many damn kids.”
Medicare is projected to eventually run out of funds, becoming insolvent in 2030, while Social Security is projected to hit insolvency four years later, according to the programs’ trustees. Congress has long recognized the problem, but it remains a politically difficult issue to fix.
On Tuesday, Bush proposed a series of reforms for the programs, including requiring wealthier seniors to pay more for their benefits. He, too, criticized Trump’s suggestion to solve the program by expanding the economy.
“You have to reform Social Security and Medicare, and the best way to do that is to make sure people who make higher incomes don’t get the same benefits,” he said. “The idea that you’re just going to grow your way out of this … you’re going to have to make adjustments.”
Rubio also has suggested ways to improve the programs’ financial outlook, but he emphasized that the changes don’t have to affect the elderly who are benefiting from them.
“Nothing has to change for current beneficiaries,” he said. “I’m against anything that’s bad for my mother. It’s not too much to ask of our generation after everything our parents and grandparents did for us.”
