Yahoo Finance Is Social Security Making ‘Promises It Can’t Keep?’ How One Prominent 2024 Presidential Candidate Plans To Address Headwinds
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has emerged as a leading 2024 presidential candidate among Republicans who favor traditional, small-government GOP policies, and her position on Social Security is one of the reasons why. Among other things, Haley has floated proposals to cut Social Security benefits for the wealthy and raise the full retirement age for younger Americans.
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As CNN reported this week, Haley won a recent endorsement from Emily Seidel, a top official in conservative billionaire Charles Koch’s influential and well-heeled political network. Seidel praised Haley for showing “courage” by proposing changes to “an entitlement system that makes promises it can’t keep.”
Social Security Remains a Top Political Talking Point
Social Security has become a major talking point among political candidates heading into the 2024 election. The reason mainly has to do with a looming funding shortfall involving the program’s Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund. The fund is expected to run out of money in about a decade. When it does, payroll taxes will cover only about 77% of current benefits — and some retirees will face a massive reduction in benefits.
Haley and other presidential candidates have staked out different positions on Social Security, ranging from President Joe Biden’s four-point plan to strengthen the program through higher tax revenue to Chris Christie’s proposals to cut benefits before Social Security goes “bankrupt.”
Many wealthy Republican donors are gravitating toward Haley not only because of her fiscal positions, but also because they see her as maybe the only viable GOP alternative to former President Donald Trump. Her calls to cut or eliminate benefits for the wealthy are especially attractive to some members of the Republican establishment.
“We need a complete reevaluation of entitlements,” Ken Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot, told CNN. “What the hell is a guy like me (doing) getting $3,500 a month from the government? That’s outrageous. I shouldn’t get a nickel.”
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Fixing Social Security a Necessity
Most everyone agrees that something should be done to fix Social Security before its trust fund is depleted. They might disagree on the particulars, but there is general consensus that the program is long overdue for an overhaul.
“It used to be that any anybody running for president had to have some sort of pretty detailed plan for Social Security,” Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told CNN. “It’s interesting that today the atmosphere and environment has changed so much that the litmus test for seriousness is if you’re willing to acknowledge that: ‘Yes, we have to do something.'”
Haley advocates several changes to Social Security that would trim the program. These include raising the retirement age for workers currently in their 30s or younger and reducing benefits for wealthy retirees.
“We’ll keep these programs the same for anyone who’s in their 40s, 50s, 60s, or older, period,” she said earlier this year. “And we’ll preserve Social Security and Medicare for the next generation. I’ll limit benefits for wealthy people.”
Haley also said she recognizes that Social Security and Medicare are “the last thing the political class wants to talk about” — even though a whole lot of politicians are talking about them lately.
“[But] any candidate who refuses to address them should be disqualified,” Haley added. “They’ll take your vote and leave you broke.”
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