Capitol Report
By State Representative, Leon D. Young
This is a big week for the 17 GOP presidential hopefuls.
At a preliminary forum held earlier in the week that featured 14 of the 17 major Republican candidates, Governor Scott Walker weighed in on his thoughts concerning the need to reform Social Security.
More specifically, Walker indicated that he would support raising the age to qualify for Social Security.
However, when asked about bumping up the age for the federal retirement program, Walker asserted that he did not favor an increase for those already in the program.
This struck me as being mighty “white” of the governor.
Under a law passed in 1983, the age to receive full Social Security benefits is 66 for those born between 1943 and 1954.
The full retirement age gradually rises to 67 for those born in 1960 or later.
In truth, there are 10,000 baby boomers reaching retirement age every day.
This in turn is putting enormous strain on the entire retirement system.
Walker’s rather glib response of simply raising the retirement age, in order to qualify for full retirement benefits, may sound reasonable on its face, but basically ignores one reality: This money essentially belongs to YOU (the vested retirees) who have paid into the system (through FICA deductions) year after year.
Here’s the reality of Social Security that politicians, such as Scott Walker, refuse to understand.
Regardless of the overall health of the economy, people who lose their jobs in their early 60s tend to file early for social Security to replace their lost income.
Moreover, people who work in physically demanding jobs also tend to file early.
Often because they’re worn out, their jobs have become too demanding, and they don’t think they’ll last very long.
And people who began work when they were young also tend to file early, for obvious reasons: enough is enough; they have paid for years and years of these benefits and they now want this money in their own hands.
Lastly, here’s another frightening statistic to consider, typically speaking Americans have saved less than $10,000 on average by the time they’re 10 years from retiring.
This means that lots of people need whatever money they can get as soon as they can get it. Hence, raising the age to qualify for Social Security would be disastrous for millions of Americans. But obviously, this is no concern to Scott Walker.