Some Republicans Oppose Raising Retirement Age

Not all Republicans agree with a House GOP budget that calls for raising the retirement age for Social Security, The Hill reported.

A budget by the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 170 GOP lawmakers, endorsed "modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy."

Democrats immediately seized on the proposal, with President Joe Biden calling it "extreme" and saying it "shows what Republicans value."

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said the idea of raising the retirement age, even for people who don't plan to retire soon, was "horrible."

"What a terrible idea. If Republicans want to be in the minority party forever, then go ahead and endorse that," he said. "Republicans are so stupid. If they want to go to working people and say, Congratulations, you have paid into this your whole life — your payroll taxes — and now we’re going to take part of it away from you. We’re going to make you work even longer than we said beforehand, I just think that's the stupidest thing I ever heard."

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner for the 2024 presidential race, said he would "never do anything that will hurt or jeopardize Social Security."

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said it was a "terrible idea to talk about adjustments to Social Security of any kind without having a full discussion of our mandatory and discretionary spending."

"Putting out proposals on a piecemeal basis is going to do nothing but get political arrows fired at it," Romney said.

"Talk about a gift to the Democrats. Seems like people have lost their political ear if they think any adjustments to the benefits of Social Security makes sense to talk about at any time, let alone during an election year."

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