Former Democratic Senator Discusses The Need To Reduce Social Security Benefits To Combat Debt

5 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-NE) reacted to the first presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump and the national debt.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00What's the solution here? Because in Donald Trump's answer to the debt question, he did

00:07eventually go on to immigration. When President Biden was talking about the national debt

00:11question, that was the question where he froze up and ended up saying, we beat Medicare.

00:16In your op-ed for the Washington Post, this is what you said for a possible solution.

00:21We don't need another commission. We need the president and Congress to do their patriotic

00:25duty and lead. What does that leadership look like?

00:29You have to come to the American people and tell them the truth. You can't come and dodge

00:34this. It's not complicated. It's not like a cure for cancer. It's a relatively straightforward

00:41problem. We're spending X. From taxes, we're generating, I don't know, X minus 5% or 6%

00:50or something like that. We're going to borrow another trillion dollars this year, I believe,

00:54to cover the difference. The only way we can solve that problem is be aware that we got

00:59to keep the economy growing. All of us want the economy to grow. We got to look for a

01:03way to generate additional revenue. Take Social Security, for example. It's a relatively easy

01:08problem to solve. You are going to have to raise some additional revenue. I personally

01:12would like to see lower income beneficiaries get more rather than less. 40% of them right

01:17now, that's all they've got for income is Social Security. You're also going to have

01:22to make adjustments in the benefits. For you that are covering this thing, the first thing

01:26that will happen, for every single time there's proposals to fix Social Security, the people

01:32will be turning out their heads saying, Bob Kerrey wants to move the retirement age back.

01:36That's not true. There's no such thing as a retirement age any longer. We eliminated

01:40the need to quit work in order to get Social Security benefits. You don't have to retire

01:45to get Social Security. There's an early, there's a normal, and there's a late benefit.

01:50That is true. Those are going to have to be moved a bit. You've got your spending, and

01:55you've got revenue, and you've got to balance the two out. It's supposed to be covered for

02:00all generations. 75 years, it's supposed to be covered. It's not even coming close. It's

02:06just not fair. You've got to come and say, we can solve this problem. We're going to

02:12have to reduce the benefits a bit. We're going to have to generate some additional revenue.

02:16We can keep our economy growing. We can make Social Security even more fair than it currently

02:20is, but we've got to be brave. We've got to think of those men who landed at Normandy

02:2580 years ago and say, we've got to act the same way, because it is going to take courage.

02:33It's not going to be easy. The American people have to recognize and appreciate when you've

02:39got people, when they do finally step forward and say, we're brave enough to get this done.

02:44You're very clear-eyed here, saying there is a solution, and it's very easy. We've just

02:49seen it come to the table and talk. Do you think people right now, politicians, aren't

02:53coming to the table to talk about this, because we're living in such a deeply divisive, partisan

02:58time right now? I think it matters, although it's not the first time we've had difficulty

03:06solving problems. People have opposition to all kinds of things. The solution to Social

03:14Security, as I said, Republicans say, oh, my God, I don't want a tax increase. You can't

03:18solve it without a tax increase. Well, I don't want a benefit cut, the Democrats will

03:23say, but you can't solve it unless you do. It's not going to ruin the country. Quite

03:29the opposite. We're going to be borrowing substantially less money, and more importantly,

03:33we're going to be able to say to our children, to our grandchildren, we don't just talk about

03:37you. We've covered the cost. We're doing this for you. We're not doing this for us. We recognize

03:43that we might win by a smaller amount in the next election. We might even lose the

03:48next election. Again, I remind those 535 members of Congress, I'm sure all of them watched

03:54the D-Day celebrations and the memories brought forth by these old men who paid the price,

04:00and we praise them. We recognize the courage it took. If you want to be remembered for

04:04having done something that required courage, you need to do something that requires courage,

04:10you won't be remembered for it.

04:13Who do you think is better equipped when it comes to handling the national debt, decreasing

04:17the national debt, President Biden or former President Trump?

04:21Oh, I think Biden. Biden's having difficulty answering the question, but he didn't go to

04:26immigration as a solution. No, I think Biden is much more likely in the end, when you get

04:35to a point where you've got to decide what you're going to be for, to make those reasonable

04:38adjustments so those 40% of Americans who only have Social Security get a little bit

04:43more than they currently do. So yes, I trust Joe Biden more than I trust Donald Trump at

04:51the moment.

Former Democratic Senator Discusses The Need To Reduce Social Security Benefits To Combat Debt

Category

Transcript

Recommended