Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2013-2015: on Social Security

Bill Weld: Will not abolish social security and receives it himself

Bill Weld: Just started receiving Social Security and likes it

Jill Stein: Save Social Security and Medicare from assault by the right

Jeb Bush: Allow diverting over 10% to private savings accounts

Earlier this year, Bush took heat from critics after saying that he wants "to phase out this program for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something." After Democrats pounced, accusing the candidate of wanting to destroy entitlements, Bush pushed back, saying he wanted to "reform" the program, not eliminate it.

To help increase retirement savings plans, Bush would encourage "starter 401(k) plans" for small business employees. He also favors the idea of letting small bu

Martin O`Malley: Expand Social Security benefits

John Kasich: Fix Social Security by lowering benefits

George Pataki: I would not reduce social security benefits

James Webb: Entitlement programs are safety net, not socialism

"When social security was announced," said Webb, "there were people who said, 'Oh, this is a socialist program, you know, what are you doing here?' When Medicare was announced, 'Oh this is a socialist program, what are you doing?'"

"Well, what we were doing was putting a safety net under people," explained Webb, "who otherwise would not be able to live with dignity."

Webb went on to clarify his position, "I am a very strong believer of preserving social security as we know it and Medicare as we know it and if we have to pay for it, we have to pay for it. We have that obligation to our citizens."

Carly Fiorina: Challenge the status quo on entitlement reform

FIORINA: I reject the premise of your question. There has not been real cutting going on. Every year, Senator Tom Coburn puts together a report of fraud, waste, abuse, corruption in the federal government. It adds up to a lot of money. Nobody ever does anything about it. The professional political class-- Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio among them, but certainly not limited to them--here's where they always fail us. How long have we been talking about entitlement reform? We talk about it every election. We talk about tax reform every election. And guess what? Nothing happens. There are binders full of great conservative ideas on how to reform Social Security and entitlements. And we will never get to it because the political class can't challenge the status quo.

Carly Fiorina: We can't reform entitlements until we reform government

FIORINA: There are loads of great ideas on how to make Social Security more financially solvent. I do not think there is a prayer of implementing a single one until you get a leader in the Oval Office who's prepared to challenge the status quo. And I am not prepared to go to the American people and talk to them about how we're going to reform Social Security until I can demonstrate to them that the government can execute with excellence.

Q: Now, that is a dodge worthy of a very good politician.

FIORINA: It's not a dodge. I am deadly serious. The American people are sick to death of politics as usual. Because we talk about all kinds of good things in election cycles. And none of it happens. None of it happens.

Carly Fiorina: Need to change status quo to achieve entitlement reform

Bernie Sanders: Raise the Social Security cap on taxable income

I believe that we have got to raise the minimum wage over a period of several years to $15 an hour--not Hillary Clinton's position. I voted against the war in Iraq. Hillary Clinton voted for it.

Chris Christie: Cut Social Security for wealthy, but don't increase taxes

CHRISTIE: They're not telling the truth. I guess the alternative could be, that they want a massive tax increase on the American people. If they want, that's fine. Here's my attitude about it, you have two choices--either get rid of some benefits for the very wealthiest in America who don't need a Social Security check, or you can give the government that's already lied to us and stolen from the trust fund more of your money. I don't want to give the government more of our money so they can lie more to us and steal more from us.

Martin O`Malley: Make it easier for workers to invest in their own retirement

• Strengthen Social Security's long-term financing by "lifting the cap on the payroll tax for workers earning more than $250,000."
• "Dramatically expand access to employer-based retirement plans. Half of all workers do not have access to a retirement plan. Among part-time and low-income workers, roughly seven in 10 lack an employer-based retirement option."

Martin O`Malley: Increase retirement benefits & provide caregiver credits

Features of O'Malley's "Expanding Social Security So Americans Can Retire With Dignity" plan:
• Immediately raise Social Security benefits -- with larger increases at the bottom than the top.
• Increase "the special minimum social security benefit to 125 percent of the poverty line for Americans who have worked at least 30 years.
• Provide "up to five years of 'caregiver credits' that would increase the 35-year wage base for those who spend an extended period of time providing fulltime care for children, elderly parents, or other dependents."
• Push policies to "lift the wages of all workers, which will make meaningful contributions to Social Security's long-term balance sheet. This includes raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and enacting comprehensive immigration reform."
• Make affordable, high-quality long-term care a national priority. Develop an efficient, affordable, and high-quality system to provide a diverse range of long-term care services for our seniors.

Jeb Bush: Next president should try again for privatization

Bush acknowledged that when his brother President George W. Bush attempted to privatize Social Security in 2005, he met great bipartisan resistance. "My brother tried, got totally wiped out," Bush said. "Republicans and Democrats wanted nothing to do with it. The next president is going to have to try again."

Bush also said Social Security shouldn't be called an entitlement: "It's a supplemental retirement system that's not actuarially sound, how about that. Medicaid and Medicare are entitlements, and they are growing at a far faster rate than anything else in government."

Ted Cruz: Implement commonsense reforms for younger workers

Jeb Bush: Push back the retirement age to 68 or 70

"We need to look over the horizon and begin to phase in, over an extended period of time, going from 65 to 68 or 70," he added. "And that, by itself, will help sustain the retirement system for anybody under the age of 40."

At the same time, Bush said that he would be open to cutting back benefits for wealthy people and their beneficiaries, a reform proposal known as means testing. "I think it ought to be considered, for sure," Bush said.

GOP lawmakers have repeatedly talked about trying to raise the retirement age and restructure the benefit program in order to make the program more sustainable. So far, however, grand entitlement reform has remained elusive.

Mike Huckabee: Opposes increases the eligibility age for social security

HUCKABEE: The problem with people even 55 and younger, they've been paying in for 40 years. This was not a voluntary extraction from their paycheck. It was involuntarily lifted from them, under the guise that the government would then provide for them their money back in that Social Security or Medicare fund. One of the reasons that I'm for the FairTax is that it means that everybody will help fund Social Security and Medicare. If everybody was under a consumption tax, which is what the FairTax does, all Americans would be contributing.

Bobby Jindal: Supported privatization & reform, early & enthusiastically

Ben Carson: Each person should be responsible for their own pension

Ben Carson: Gradually raise the age of eligibility for benefits

Mike Bloomberg: To reduce the deficit we must cut entitlements

BLOOMBERG: Winston Churchill once said, "You can always depend on America to do the right thing after exhausting all other possibilities." We've had a democracy for 235-odd years and it works in the end, and that's what's in important. Sequestering is here. It will go on for a while. It's not going to be the end of the world as we know it. And everybody was saying, "Oh, the worst-case scenario is exactly what we're going to implement." And now they're into the real world and they'll try to find ways to do more with less, and then hopefully Congress will come together and modify sequestering to cut things back where we can afford it and not where we can't. And keep in mind, no program to reduce the deficit makes any sense whatsoever unless you address the issue of entitlements, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, interest payment on the debt, which you can't touch, and defense spending. Everything else is tiny compared to that.

Paul Ryan: Federal employees pension contributions like private sector

RYAN: Not really. We always got close to balancing the budget, but, not quite there. We don't have to do much simply because the new CBO baseline makes it easier, because the new baseline reflects the fiscal cliff, which is higher revenues and lower spending, making it easier to balance. We ask all federal employees to have their pension contributions like those in the private sector. We think we owe the American people a balanced budget.

Q: You include the $600 billion in tax increases, that came from raising rates in the fiscal cliff debate. You also include $716 billion in Medicare cuts through ObamaCare that you opposed. Is it fair to say at least those parts of the president's policies make it easier to balance the budget?

RYAN: It is fair to say that. What we also say is, end the raid of Medicare from ObamaCare. And we don't want to refight the fiscal cliff.

Rob Portman: Payroll taxes don't pay for the benefits going out

PORTMAN: We have to educate folks as to what the problem is. For instance, Social Security this year is in trouble. There's about an $80 billion deficit. The payroll taxes don't pay for the benefits going out. And that's not understood right now.

Q: So why did the budget deal fall apart?

PORTMAN: Well, we came very close. And it was a balanced approach, and Republicans supported it. Spending is the problem, there is no question about it. The CBO just told us again that if we don't do something on the spending side, there's no way that taxes at any level can catch it, because spending goes up so rapidly. These important programs--Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid--will double in size in the next 10 years, which is, of course, the main reason, along with interest on the debt, that you add another $10 trillion to the budget deficit. But the problem right now is we don't see from the president any structural changes in this unsustainable course on entitlements.

Paul Ryan: 60% of Americans get more benefits than they pay in taxes

(Videotape) OBAMA: The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Social Security, these things do not make us a nation of takers.

RYAN: Right now, according to the tax foundation, between 60% and 70% of Americans get more federal benefits than they pay in taxes. So we're getting toward a society where we have a net majority of takers versus makers. (End videotape)

Q: Still true?

RYAN: We don't want a dependency culture; we want a safety net. When I cite that statistic, the point is, people want the American Dream. They want lives of opportunity. We want to make sure that we don't continue that trend. No one is suggesting that Medicare and Social Security makes you a taker.

Q: But you're citing figures that include entitlements like Medicare and Social Security.

RYAN: When these statistics get cited, it leads you to think that America is gone, that we're becoming too much of a dependent culture. And my point is, that's not the whole picture.