According to the Los Angeles Times, Florida Senator Marco Rubio has launched a campaign calling for an overhaul of Social Security and Medicare to keep the programs solvent. Rubio charges that such action would ease the national debt.
Rubio says that he wants Social Security to exist when he retires and he does not want it to bankrupt Americans or our country. Rubio stressed that such change should not impact current retirees or Americans 55 or older. His plan includes gradual reform spread over decades to help preserve Social Security for our future generations, claims the rising Republican figure.
In his campaign, Rubio said would not vote to raise the debt ceiling next month unless Congress shows they are serious about restraining spending and revising entitlement programs. Rubio did not propose an exact plan of how he plans to gradually raise the retirement age, but says he plans to raise the age for collecting full benefits.
Ted Deutch, Democrat of Boca Raton, opposes Rubio’s idea but proposes removing a cap on individual income that is subjected to Social Security taxes. He said that would mean more taxes are paid by the top 5 percent of earners who make up the cap, which amounts to $106,800 a year. In Deutch’s proposal, Social Security’s yearly cost of living raise will be adjusted to take into consideration high medical costs faced by senior citizens. Under the present law, a slight increase in inflation leads to a small cost of living raise next year. Due to a low overall inflation in the past two years, there has been no cost of living increases.
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