Romney: Better to Raise Retirement Age, Cut Benefits Than Fair Share Social Security Tax

[LongTomH]

From the AFL CIO blog:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a group New Hampshire seniors, including members of the Alliance for Retired Americans, that he supports raising the retirement age or cutting benefits as opposed to asking all taxpayers to pay a fair share to strengthen Social Security.

<snip>

In a meeting in Lebanon, N.H., Alliance President Charlie Balban asked Romney if he would support raising the Social Security payroll tax beyond its current $106,000 cap to help strengthen Social Security.

One member of the audience told Romney, “We’re just asking that everybody pay at the same rate.”

Romney said he was opposed to having the wealthy pay Social Security payroll taxes on more or all of their income as most workers must. He said he instead would support raising the retirement age or cutting benefits by changing the way the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is calculated. CPI is used to determine cost of living adjustments for Special Security recipients.

Romney is referring to a proposed new inflation formula known as “chained CPI,” which, if implemented, would mean that a worker in 2011 at age 65 will see his or her Social Security benefits slashed by $6,000 over 15 years.

You almost have to admire Romney having the chutzpah to make a statement like that to a crowd of seniors (I said almost). He must be confident that Republicans can buy the election in the post Citizens United era!

[HockeyMom]

1. All Seniors sit at DESKS in front of a computer and can keep working

until 70, IF their employers won't find some reason to fire them? Yeah, let's have 68 year old cops, firefighters, construction workers, health care workers, etc.

[LongTomH]

3. Actually employers are getting rid of older workers in general.

That includes the people who sit in front of computer screens. Those people are frequently finding their jobs outsourced or 're-engineered' when they're in mid-career, in their 40s or 50s.

[Skink]

2. I'm from Lebanon and I must say they must have treated Romney very bad today.

[valerief]

4. I support dropping Romney off a high building to watch him fly. My idea is better than his. nt

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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