Social Security:
Candidates make pitches at forum before debate
At GOP forum, Gov. Scott Walker talks about raising the qualifying age for benefits.
At a forum Monday featuring 14 of the 17 major Republican candidates, Gov. Scott Walker suggested he would support raising the age to qualify for Social Security.
Asked about bumping up the age for the federal retirement program, Walker said he did not favor an increase for those already in the program. But for people like him, the 47-year-old governor said, “Yeah, we’re going to have to make some reforms going forward.”
Walker didn’t specify what those might be.
Under a law passed in 1983, the age to receive full Social Security benefits is 66 for those born between 1943 and 1954. It gradually rises to 67 for those born in 1960 or later.
The Voters First Presidential Forum in some ways was a preview of Thursday’s first Republican debate in Cleveland. Ten candidates will appear in Thursday’s debate, based on how they have performed in polls.
A wider pool of candidates was eligible to appear in Monday’s forum at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., and 14 agreed to do it.
They faced two rounds of one-on-one questions from New Hampshire radio host Jack Heath. The event was structured that way to avoid violating Republican National Committee rules aimed at limiting the number of debates.
Heath asked Walker if he believed climate change was caused by humans and what he made of the standards President Barack Obama’s administration announced Monday that put tougher limits on carbon emissions from power plants.
Walker avoided saying whether he believed climate change was caused by humans, but he made clear he believed the regulations would thrash the U.S. economy.
“It would be like a buzz saw to the nation’s economy,” he said. “States like mine and many of the other governors here would be devastated by that.
“I’m an Eagle Scout. We were taught long ago that your campsite should be cleaner when you leave than when you find it, so I want to balance the sustainable environment with a sustainable economy,” Walker said. “But the two have to go hand in hand. I want clean air, clean land, clean water, but I want an economy that my children and grandchildren some day can grow in as well, so the two have to go hand in hand.”
The candidates were each asked a different set of questions, and they had to use their brief time — less than 10 minutes each in all — to try to distinguish themselves from their opponents.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he wanted to repeal “every word” of the Affordable Care Act and that he wanted the 2016 race to be a referendum on the measure known as Obamacare.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky called for a less aggressive foreign policy, saying the United States should not enter wars as if they were a game of Risk.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush took a different tack, saying Americans need to be more vigilant about terrorism because we have “let our guard down a little bit.”
Others stressed the need for bold change.
“We’ve got a lot of talkers. We need a doer,” said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Large problems don’t get solved because “the status quo is in charge,” said Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard. The others appearing at the forum were neurosurgeon Ben Carson; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; Ohio Gov. John Kasich; former New York Gov. George Pataki; former Texas Gov. Rick Perry; former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania; and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
Three candidates did not attend: Real estate mogul Donald Trump and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee declined to participate. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore got in the race too late to sign up for it.
Cruz, Paul and Rubio appeared by video because the Senate was in session earlier Monday.
The forum was hosted by C-SPAN and newspapers in three early states — the New Hampshire Union Leader, the Post and Courier of South Carolina and The Gazette of Iowa.