Biden’s budget, which includes tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations, slashed military funding and a plan to reduce the deficit by $3 trillion over a decade, appears unlikely to pass Congress.
House Republicans have called for spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling later this year; The House Freedom Caucus released a 10-point plan last week. Additionally, Florida Sen. Rick Scott has suggested a way to sunset the Social Security and Medicare programs, which became particularly controversial after Biden criticized the plan during his State of the Union address earlier this year.
On Sunday, Kennedy said there should be conversations about making changes to these programs, though he was quick to say people should get the Medicare and Social Security benefits they’ve paid for. But he echoed recent comments by Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley suggesting the possibility of raising the eligibility age for Social Security.
“Of course we have to talk about it,” Kennedy told host Shannon Bream.
“The average American’s life expectancy now is about 77 years. For those in their 20s, their life expectancy is 85 to 90. Does it really make sense to let someone in their 20s retire at 62 today? Those are the kinds of things we should be talking about.”
“We have a lot of things to talk about, but President Biden has taken that issue completely off the table,” Kennedy added.
