Republican Debate Highlights Candidates’ Social Security, Medicare, Among Other Issues
The Republican candidate debate last night, set in Orlando, Florida, among the issues discussed, delved into what to do about a looming fiscal crisis for the Social Security and Medicare programs, an issue largely absent from the six previous debates featuring all the front-runners.
Former Senator Fred Thompson, 65, said the government may have to curb the growth of future benefits to keep the programs solvent.
“We're bankrupting the next generation,'' said Thompson, 65. "The indexing of benefits in the future, from wages to prices, is one way to avoid a future fight over “a lot higher taxes or big benefit cuts.''
Former NY Mayor Rudi Giuliani, 63, supported adding private accounts for Social Security, a proposal that failed to win support when offered by President George W. Bush in 2005, and cutting the cost of health insurance so that more people can buy their own coverage.
“If you start to establish a private market, you're going to be able to figure out how to solve these things within costs that are sustainable,'' Giuliani said.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, 60, 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.''
Romney 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, the government health insurance programs for the elderly and poor.
The debate, sponsored by Fox News and the Florida Republican Party, was the seventh such forum involving all the candidates and the first since Kansas Senator Sam Brownback dropped out of the race.
Published on October 22, 2007
Are you retail Agent Looking for a Quote?