Chris Christie Promises Social Security and Medicare Won’t Vanish
Rest easy, millennials -- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie promises that entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare will be around in the future.
"I will make sure Medicare and Social Security are here," proclaimed Christie at the Republican undercard debate on Tuesday. Christie has explicit proposals in place to ensure that both social safety nets, which will need additional funding as the baby boomer population grows, continue to exist into the future.
Christie has proposed phasing out and eliminating Social Security income for wealthy Americans who don't need it. His plan would phase out payments for those who make $200,000 a year in other income during retirement and implement a means test for those who make $80,000 a year in non-Social Security income. Christie believes the plan would affect 2% of all recipients.
The Governor believes the same template should also be applied to Medicare. Under his proposals, seniors making $85,000 a year would pay 40% of their premium costs. For those who make above $196,000 a year during retirement, that figure would increase to 90%.
Christie is also in favor of raising the retirement age for collecting Social Security to 69, gradually implementing the change in 2022 by increasing the retirement age by two months each year until it reaches 69.
While painful for individuals, some kind of entitlement reform is a necessary evil. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), under current rules, the budget deficit would clock in at about $414 billion in 2015, but spike to roughly $1 trillion in 2016. The cumulative deficit between 2016 and 2025 will be $7 trillion, in large part due to more people reaching retirement age and tapping Medicare and Medicaid, the CBO estimates.
The CBO points to higher interest rates in the U.S. as one damaging aftershock of ballooning deficits, in addition to the inability to use tax and spending policies to respond to unexpected challenges in the economy.