In a recent interview with Fox Business host Charles V. Payne, Senator Rand Paul defended his idea of raising the Social Security retirement age to 70. He told Payne:
“No, I don’t hate old people, in fact, I aspire to be one. … At this rate, Social Security runs out in 2034. If we do nothing, everyone gets a 25% cut. … Gradually raise the age, means-test benefits, and save the program without taxing working families into the ground.”
His argument is simple: reform now or face bigger cuts later. But that “fix” sparks the same question millions of working Americans are asking:
Why is the government always tightening the belt on the people who actually work?
If you’re a roofer in the Vegas heat, a hotel housekeeper, or a delivery driver pulling 12-hour shifts, you’re told you must keep going until 70.
Meanwhile, Washington keeps expanding programs for people who don’t work:
- Food stamps
- Section 8 housing
- Free phones, free healthcare, and endless “assistance” programs
The result? The working class, the backbone of this country, gets told to “sacrifice for the system” while bureaucrats keep printing money and giving it away.
The Double Standard
If Congress can fund billions in foreign aid, corporate subsidies, and welfare for those who never paid in, then surely they can fund the very program American workers spent a lifetime paying into.
Social Security was meant to be a promise – you work, you earn, you retire with dignity.
Now it’s turning into another broken deal where Washington’s answer to every problem is to raise the age or raise the taxes.
The Real Reform
Reform shouldn’t start with the worker. It should start with waste.
Cut the fraud. End the giveaways. Audit the endless alphabet soup of programs that keep people dependent instead of empowered.
Before you ask a 65-year-old truck driver to keep hauling cross-country at 3 a.m., ask Congress why they can’t balance a budget or stop funding pet projects overseas.
Senator Paul is right about one thing, math doesn’t lie. But neither do the calluses on an American worker’s hands.
If Washington wants to “save” Social Security, they should start by respecting the people who built it, not punishing them.
Back in 1983, Congress faced the same crisis it’s warning about now: Social Security was going broke.
Their “solution”?
A bipartisan deal between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill that, you guessed it, raised the retirement age and increased payroll taxes.
Washington called it “reform.” Workers called it what it really was: a permanent tax hike wrapped in a temporary fix.
The False Promise
They said the changes would make Social Security “solvent for 75 years.”
Well, here we are, 42 years later, and the program is once again running out of money by 2034.
So where did all that money go?
Decades of raids on the trust fund, government borrowing, and spending beyond belief.
Washington treated Social Security like a personal piggy bank, replacing real dollars with IOUs.
Now, the same politicians who created the problem want you, the worker, to fix it again.
Déjà Vu Economics
When they say “reform,” what they really mean is:
- Work longer
- Get less
- Pay more
And just like before, the government refuses to look in the mirror.
They won’t cut foreign aid. They won’t touch oversized bureaucracies. They won’t stop funding programs that hand out benefits to people who’ve never paid a dime into the system.
Instead, they’ll “reform” by punishing the very Americans who’ve kept this country running.
If Congress truly wants to save Social Security:
- Lock the Trust Fund. No more borrowing or IOUs.
- Cut the waste before cutting the worker.
- Audit welfare programs and remove duplication.
- End automatic foreign aid increases until American seniors are secure.
Real reform doesn’t mean raising the retirement age, it means restoring trust and accountability.
We’ve seen this movie before. The 1983 “fix” was supposed to protect the next generation. Instead, it kicked the can, right to us.
Now Washington wants another “temporary fix.” But maybe it’s time we fix Washington instead.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. Digital technology was used in the research, writing, and production of this article. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
