,"Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has proposed changing the retirement age and limiting Social Security and Medicare benefits..."
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday called for changing the retirement age and limiting Social Security and Medicare benefits for younger generations in order to ensure the programs remain solvent.
The former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, who announced her candidacy for president in a speech in her hometown of Greenwood, South Carolina, on Tuesday, said that raising the retirement age and reducing benefits are necessary to save Social Security and Medicare from insolvency.
"We have to look at the retirement age, and we have to look at the benefits. We have to look at these programs that are so important to our seniors and make sure that they are there,” she said during a town hall in Iowa.
She did not offer any specific details on how to raise the retirement age or reduce benefits, but she said that the programs should be preserved for future generations.
“We have to make sure that our children and our grandchildren have the same opportunities that we had,” she said.
Haley's proposal echoed a budget proposal released by Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 that proposed raising the retirement age, reducing Social Security benefits, and increasing the amount of money paid into the Social Security trust fund.
The proposal also called for reducing Medicare benefits, including raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67 and reducing the amount of money available for medical services.
Critics of the proposal have argued that raising the retirement age could hurt low-income workers, who may not be able to work longer due to health problems or may have to take lower-paying jobs in order to make ends meet.
Supporters argue that the proposal is necessary to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security and Medicare.
Haley's proposal is sure to be controversial, but it is also likely to be a key part of the presidential campaign debate.
