‘Nothing’ Doing About Social Security?
Despite long being called the “third rail” of American politics, Social Security—or more precisely its viability—has reemerged as an issue in the 2024 presidential campaign. It came up most recently in a mini-GOP debate between former U.N. ambassador/South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Haley reaffirmed her previous statements that changes would be required to shore up the financial viability of that system (and, arguably more critically, Medicare)—taking pains to emphasize that she wasn’t calling for changes that would impact current/close-to-retiring individuals. For his part DeSantis—to whom the question was initially posed—maintained that there was no need to raise the age for full retirement benefits (apparently due to COVID’s impact on life expectancy), as though that were the only potential remedy required [i] (he did express confidence that something would be worked out long-term). And both former President Trump and Pres...