Former U.S. Senator Mitt Romney renewed his RINO license in the far-left New York Times on Friday by calling for tax hikes and the raising of the retirement age.
What is he doing, exactly?
It’s all so strange.
“If, as projected, the Social Security Trust Fund runs out in the 2034 fiscal year, benefits will be cut by about 23 percent. The government will need trillions of dollars to make up the shortfall,” he writes, and then recommends the following…
“Social Security and Medicare benefits for future retirees should be means-tested — need-based, that is to say — and the starting age for entitlement payments should be linked to American life expectancy.”
“Means-tested” means that even if you paid into Social Security and Medicare your entire working life, the government can decide you have too much money and deny you both—even though we’ve been told this is our money for our retirement.
Then he wants the “starting age for entitlements … linked to … life expectancy,” which means increasing the age at which you can begin collecting Social Security and Medicare.
Here are his suggestions for outright tax increases…
“I long opposed increasing the income level on which FICA employment taxes are applied (this year, the cap is $176,100). No longer[.]”
Currently, once your income reaches that $176,100, the government stops taking taxes for Medicare and Social Security. It sounds like Romney wants to tax people no matter how much they make.
He also argues for closing loopholes, increasing the estate tax, and similar measures.
This has always been Romney’s problem.
Actually, two of Romney’s problems.
The first is that you can always count on him to eventually cave to Democrats. There’s death, taxes, and Romney caving to Democrats.
Second is his dazzling lack of imagination.
How do we fix entitlements, Mitt?
Uh, raise the retirement age and tax increases.
Way to think out of the box, Mitt.
America cannot tax its way to either prosperity or fiscal solvency. Tax increases always-always-always slow economic growth, which — and this is key — decreases tax revenues. Romney acknowledges this and then, without evidence, wrist flicks it: “Yes, taxes can slow growth. But most of the measures I propose would have a relatively small impact on economic growth.”
In other words, I’ve acknowledged it, so I don’t have to really address it, you know, because I acknowledged it.
About this idea for raising the retirement age…
Yes, we are living longer. Life expectancy has increased six years since 1980, but that doesn’t mean that those six additional years add up to prime working years. It’s not like your physical clock rewinds and now a 65-year-old is as spry as a 59-year-old. For many, those additional six years are linger years, six more years of being really old, frail, and sickly. For many, 70 is not the new 60. Rather, 70 is still 70, but instead of dying at 79, you die at 85.
So is it really fair to increase the retirement age? We live 12 years longer today than we did in 1950 when the average retirement age was 66. Should the retirement age reflect that? Should we be required to work until we’re 78 years old?
I don’t think so.
If Mitt had any imagination, he would call for an end to Social Security and Medicare as we know it. Keep the system as is for anyone over 40 or 50. For those under 40, keep the mandatory deductions, but have the money they would’ve poured into the terrible ideas that are Social Security and Medicare invested wisely.
The money that goes towards Social Security should go into an IRA. Not only will it grow into real money over 50 years, you will own it, all of it. That’s not the case if you die young after paying into Social Security for decades. For medical care, have the money currently going to Medicare put into a health savings account or begin paying on a private health insurance premium that kicks in at age 65.
Romney is simply regurgitating decades-old ideas voters have rejected for decades. But hey, at least he got his name in the New York Times.
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