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Republican Presidential Candidates on Social Security and Medicare

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Republican Presidential Candidates on Social Security and Medicare
On the Issues

Where the Republican Candidates Stand on Social Security and Medicare

Social Security and Medicare are known as third rails of American politics for a reason. Reducing benefits is very unpopular, but higher taxes are divisive, too — and without at least one of those two steps, both programs are on track to become unable to make full payments in the next decade. Exact projections have fluctuated based on overall economic conditions, but the most recent estimates show Social Security running out of money to cover full benefits by 2033, and part of Medicare by 2031.

The candidates are split on whether to call for changes to the programs, but those who say they would leave them untouched generally have not explained how they would keep them solvent.

He says he wouldn’t cut the programs but hasn’t explained how he would keep them solvent.

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Former President Donald J. Trump has said he would not make any cuts to Social Security or Medicare benefits. However, he has also opposed raising taxes to bring in more funding for them, which means his plans would not keep the programs solvent for the long term. A spokesman for his campaign did not respond to requests for comment.


Headshot of Ron DeSantis

He says he’s open to Social Security cuts for younger Americans.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has ruled out reducing Social Security benefits for current retirees and people near retirement age, but he has expressed openness to reductions for younger Americans.


Headshot of Nikki Haley

She says she’s open to cuts for younger Americans.

Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, has suggested that she would raise the Social Security retirement age for people currently in their 20s in accordance with increases in life expectancy, though she has not given a number. (The retirement age is currently 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.)


Headshot of Mike Pence

He wants to partly privatize Social Security, but his plan for Medicare is unclear.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has tried to contrast himself with candidates who say they would leave Social Security and Medicare untouched.

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Headshot of Tim Scott

He says he wouldn’t cut the programs but hasn’t explained how he would keep them solvent.

Senator Tim Scott said at a campaign event this spring that he would “never, ever cut Medicare or Social Security benefits.” But at another event, he also said that policymakers would “have to look at the overall entitlement state of our nation.”


Headshot of Chris Christie

He supports a higher retirement age and lower benefits for wealthy people.

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Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey supports raising the retirement age for people currently in their 40s or younger, and ending Social Security benefits for the wealthiest people, a policy known as means-testing. “Do we really need to have Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk collecting Social Security?” he asked in an interview with Fox News in July.


Headshot of Asa Hutchinson

He wants to let people claim benefits early while still working, and he would have a commission consider changes.

Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas has suggested that people who begin claiming Social Security benefits early should be allowed to continue working while still receiving the benefits. By continuing to earn a paycheck, these workers would keep paying into the Social Security system through payroll deductions, increasing the program’s funding.


Headshot of Vivek Ramaswamy

He says he wouldn’t cut the programs but hasn’t explained how he would keep them solvent.

Vivek Ramaswamy has said he would not touch Social Security or Medicare benefits. “In a shrinking economy, we should not cut entitlements,” he said in July. In an interview with Gray DC a few months earlier, he said that he would not have created the programs, but that people now had “a reasonable expectation” of receiving certain benefits and that “you can’t just pull that rug out from under them.”


Headshot of Doug Burgum

He has called Social Security a “solemn commitment” but hasn’t made his plans clear.

Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota suggested in a town hall event in New Hampshire that he could “drive dollars” to the program by running the rest of the government and the federal budget “more efficiently.”

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Headshot of Will Hurd

Will Hurd

Former United States Representative

He has not made his plans clear.

As a member of Congress, former Representative Will Hurd of Texas voted against raising the retirement age for Social Security and means-testing for wealthy Americans. As a candidate, however, he has not outlined specific proposals on Social Security and Medicare, and his campaign did not respond to questions.


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Ukraine says it has attacked North Korean troops in Kursk

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Ukraine says it has attacked North Korean troops in Kursk

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Ukrainian officials said on Monday that their forces had fired at North Korean soldiers in combat for the first time since their deployment by Russia to its western Kursk region.

The clashes mark the first direct intervention by a foreign army since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, as well as an expansion of what was already the largest land war in Europe since the second world war.

“The first military units of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] have already come under fire in Kursk,” Andriy Kovalenko, Ukraine’s top counter-disinformation official within the national security council, said on Telegram. A senior Ukrainian intelligence official confirmed the military engagement to the Financial Times but declined to provide further details.

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In Kyiv, foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said he had discussed with his visiting German counterpart Annalena Baerbock the “need for decisive action” in response to North Korea’s deepening involvement in the war.

“We urge Europe to realise that the DPRK troops are now carrying [out] an aggressive war in Europe against a sovereign European state,” Sybiha said in a news conference.

The US on Monday called out Russia and China at the UN Security Council for “shamelessly protecting” and emboldening North Korea. South Korea and the EU also condemned the deployment and expressed concern that Russia could reward North Korea with transfers of nuclear and ballistic technology.

Another senior Ukrainian official told the FT that Moscow was already providing military technologies to Pyongyang to help with its missile programmes, as well as “money”.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin met North Korea’s foreign minister, Choe Son-hui, in the Kremlin on Monday.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and North Korean foreign minister Choe Son-hui meet at the Kremlin on Monday © Mikhael Tereshchenko/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Choe passed on a greeting from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has backed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and signed a treaty with Putin in June that includes a mutual security assistance clause.

The foreign minister last week said that North Korea had “no doubt whatsoever that under the wise leadership of the honourable Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian army and people will surely achieve a great victory in their sacred struggle to defend the sovereign rights and security of their state”.

Putin has not confirmed the North Korean deployment but he hinted at it last month, indicating it fell under the security provisions in the treaty.

US and South Korean officials last week confirmed Ukraine’s assessment that around 8,000 North Korean troops were sent to Kursk last month to help Russia’s army push Ukrainian forces out of territory they have occupied since August. Senior Ukrainian intelligence officials told the FT that the forces were in barracks about 50km from the Ukrainian border and preparing to enter the fight within “days”.

Kyiv, Washington and Seoul said that Pyongyang had sent roughly 12,000 troops in all to Russia for its ongoing war effort, including 500 officers and three generals. The remaining forces are located in Russia’s far east, where they are undergoing training.

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The White House has said that the North Koreans would become “legitimate military targets” if they entered the fight against Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Ukraine could see where Russia was gathering the North Koreans and urged western nations to lift restrictions on long-range weapons to “pre-emptively” strike them before they could attack his forces.

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The senior Ukrainian intelligence official declined to provide specifics about the first military engagement between his country’s forces and the North Koreans. But he said that it occurred within Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine controls some 600 sq km of territory, or a little more than half of what it previously held following the summer incursion that took Moscow by surprise.

Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, the GUR, said over the weekend that Russia had armed the North Korean troops in Kursk with 60mm mortars, assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, anti-tank guided missiles and shoulder-launched anti-tank rocket launchers. The GUR said that some were also provided with night-vision devices and thermal imagers. A few hundred troops from North Korea’s special forces have also been deployed in Kursk.

Ukrainian officials and military analysts have raised questions about the quality and combat effectiveness of the North Korean troops, with most being described as inexperienced, low-ranking soldiers.

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“We will know soon” how well they can fight, said one of the officials on Monday.

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Both Candidates Exude Confidence, Trump Says He Doesn’t Mind if Reporters Are Shot

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Both Candidates Exude Confidence, Trump Says He Doesn’t Mind if Reporters Are Shot
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are exuding confidence as they head into Election Day. For Trump, that’s nothing new. He said over the weekend that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House at the end of his presidency – despite losing the 2020 election to President Joe …
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Video: The County That Got Every President Right (Since 1980)

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Video: The County That Got Every President Right (Since 1980)

One county in Washington State has picked the winner in every presidential election since 1980. Astead W. Herndon, a national politics reporter and the host of the politics podcast “The Run-Up,” visited the county last year. Now, he returns in the last days before Election Day to see if voters’ views have changed.

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