Some Republicans want Gen Z to retire later to avoid outright cuts to Social Security: 'Does it really make sense to allow someone who's in their 20s today to retire at 62?'

• Several Republicans have said recently that they want to raise the retirement age for younger generations.
• That's as top Republicans say publicly that they're against cutting Social Security.

President Joe Biden has said he's open to suggestions on how to keep the Social Security fund solvent.

Some Republicans have an idea for how Gen Z can help.

Social Security is rapidly approaching insolvency, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating that the fund will become unable to make all of its payments starting in 2033. Social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security have been a partisan battleground for Democrats and Republicans for decades now, with Republicans eyeing big cuts for both programs.

A number of Democrats are eyeing a tax on high-earning Americans to fund the programs, while a cohort of Republicans want to postpone the age that Americans can receive payments from the fund.

"The life expectancy of the average American is about 77 years old," Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, said on Fox News this week. "For people who are in their 20s, their life expectancy will probably be 85 to 90. Does it really make sense to allow someone who's in their 20s today to retire at 62?"

It's a sentiment that's echoing across the GOP, even as top Republicans in Congress maintain they're not going to cut Social Security. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, told CNN this week that she supports raising the retirement age "as long as it's not anybody that's heading into retirement right now."

"We do not want to take away those that are in retirement, or those that are heading into retirement," she said. "If we're talking about younger generations, my kids, for example, if they know what the – what the retirement will look like 40 years from now, 50 years from now, then that should be on the table, and can be."

The current average retirement age in the US is 65 for men and 62 for women, according to the Center for Retirement Research's most recent data, which is from 2021. Laura Haltzel, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, told Barron's this month that "increases in longevity have not been shared equally in the population." Higher-income Americans are experiencing the greatest increases in life expectancy while middle and lower earners remain stagnant, or have seen declines, according to estimates from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican who's challenging Biden and former President Donald Trump for president in 2024, said she supports raising the retirement age for Americans in their 20s, a group that includes her own children.

"It is unrealistic to say you're not going to touch entitlements," Haley said on Fox News. "The thing is you don't have to touch it for seniors and anybody near retirement. You're talking about the new generation, like my kids coming up."

Republicans are eyeing cuts for younger people only

Top Republican leaders remain steadfast against assertions that they might want to cut programs, even as cuts are outlined in the Republican Study Committee's 2023 budget proposal. Such cuts were used as a negotiating tactic by the most far-right members of the House to eventually elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.

Republicans are walking a fine line between pushing for the spending cuts they want while also not alienating older voters, which McConnell alluded to. Even Trump has been warning Republicans against raising the retirement age to 70.

"Cut waste, fraud and abuse everywhere that we can find it and there is plenty, there's plenty of it," he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week. "But do not cut the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives. Save Social Security, don't destroy it."

Cutting Social Security and Medicare is broadly unpopular. In an Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 adults from January, only 17% of Americans said they supported Congress reducing spending on those programs.

Biden continues to remain firm against conceding to any cuts.

"When I pointed out that some Republicans are talking about eliminating Medicare, they said, 'No, no, no,' " Biden told PBS NewsHour following his State of the Union address. "I said, 'Oh, OK. That means all of you are for supporting Medicare? Everybody raise your hand.' They all raised their hand. So guess what? We accomplished something. Unless they break their word. There are going to be no cuts in Medicare, Social Security."

The White House has continued to criticize Republicans for not being publicly consistent about their goals for Social Security and Medicare.

"It's practically impossible for House Republicans to achieve their stated fiscal goals without cutting Medicare and Social Security," Andrew Bates, White House deputy press secretary, told Insider in January.

"House Republicans plan to set off a crisis that reverses the job gains we're now experiencing, kills businesses, and decimates 401ks unless they can cut Medicare and Social Security," he added, calling their public statements about protecting those programs "head fakes."

That's as Republicans like Kennedy and Haley look for wiggle room when it comes to younger Americans — and are critical of Biden's refusal even on that.

"President Biden has taken that issue totally off the table," Kennedy told Fox. "He says he has fixed it in his budget and that's nonsense. That's nonsense on a stick."