Favors private accounts; prepared to be entirely bold
Romney said he "was prepared to be entirely bold," in taking on the politically perilous issue of entitlement spending, "but I'm not prepared to cut benefits for low-income Americans." He said he favored private accounts and would consider tying
Social Security benefits to prices rather than wages for higher income Americans. Romney said "effective leadership that brings people from both sides of the aisle together" could solve the problem of escalating costs for Medicare and Medicaid.
Source: Bloomberg.com report on 2007 GOP primary debate in Orlando
Oct 21, 2007
Private accounts work better than extending retirement age
I'm not prepared to cut benefits for low-income Americans. We're going to make sure that we protect these programs for our seniors. Currently, we're taking more money into Social Security that we actually send out. So our current seniors, their benefits
are not going to change. For people 20 and 30 and 40 years old, we have four major options for Social Security.
The one Democrats want: raise taxes. It's the wrong way to go.
The president said let's have private accounts and take that surplus
money that's being gathered now in Social Security and put that into private accounts. That works.
Other people said, well, extend the retirement age. That mathematically works. It's not as attractive.
And the last is to index the Social
Security benefits, the first benefit, to something other than wages, which is what it has always been. But, in my view, that's the wrong way to go, other than for higher-income Americans. Let's consider indexing based on prices rather than wages.
Reform entitlements by negotiating behind closed doors
Romney says it's time to reform the two major entitlement programs: Social Security and Medicare. "It's really not possible for us to remain a superpower without restructuring our entitlements programs," Romney says. Romney says leaders from both
political parties will have to come up with a solution in private. "Sitting down, quietly, behind closed doors and having a full and complete discussion of various ways to bring the costs down and to keep it from getting out of control," Romney says.
Source: Radio Iowa, "Romney: reform", by O.Kay Henderson
Aug 25, 2006
Honor expectations of recipients, but take action for future
Romney says "statesmen" from both political parties should sit down and "say honestly: 'What can we do?'" to fix Social Security. Romney says the solution should "make sure that we honor the expectations" of those who are already getting
Social Security and those who are about to get regular Social Security checks from the government, while at the same time ensuring the system will be solvent when the 30- and 40-year-olds of today reach retirement age.
Source: Radio Iowa, "Romney: reform", by O.Kay Henderson
Aug 25, 2006
