Far-right plans, endorsed by Project 2025’s authors, to increase the full retirement age would cut benefits for nearly three-quarters of Americans and threaten low- and moderate-income workers with economic insecurity once they leave the workforce.
This is notable since Project 2025’s 900-page Mandate for Leadership fails to propose any solutions for Social Security and says, on page 710, that its proposals for the program could not be “be covered here in depth” (meaning that they would not fully explain their plan)
Notably, that line was co-authored by economist Stephen Moore, who has advocated to slash and privatize social security, once calling it a “Ponzi scheme” and encouraging students to burn their Social Security cards. Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, has also gone on to say Project 2025 is just the basis of their plan and “there are parts of the plan that we will not share with the left.” Last month, his organization called for raising the retirement age, and the author of that analysis-Rachel Greszler, is listed as a Project 2025 contributor.
Raising the retirement age
the Federal Retirement Age would increase by three months per year, starting with those turning 62 in 2026, until it rises by two years—from 67 to 69. Then, the new Retirement Age of 69 would be fully phased in for those turning 62 in 2033. Considering the language for this proposal has remained the same between years, it is likely that this timeline would simply be pushed back a year with the 2025 version. This means the phase-in would begin with those turning 62 in 2027 and finish with those turning 62 in 2034. This higher Retirement Age would cut Social Security benefits. According to Center for American Progress analysis, a Retirement Age of 69 would cut benefits for all new retirees between roughly 12.5 percent and 14.3 percent by the time it is fully phased in. In addition, it would cost a median-wage retiree who earned $70,000 in 2022 and turns 62 in 2034 thousands of dollars every year.
The median-wage retiree could lose up to $100,000 after 10 years of benefit cuts under the Republican Study Committee plan.
Conclusion
Plans to cut Social Security benefits by raising the full retirement age, such as those put forward by the Republican Study Committee and the Heritage Foundation, would make the program less adequate for future retirees and increase their risk of economic insecurity. This is especially true for low- and middle-income retirees. The data are clear: Raising the FRA would cut benefits by thousands of dollars per year for a population that has not shown significant interest in delaying retirement. This is both a poor outcome for any American hoping to retire with enough resources to make ends meet and an example of how dangerous and extreme far-right policy ideas would pull the rug out from under America’s middle and working classes.
Taken from the analysis from The Center for American Progress
