Key Point: “However, advocates contend the committee’s proposals are veiled attempts to cut benefits by raising the retirement age and making the benefits less generous, among other changes. […] ‘The new speaker has made it clear he’s not a friend to seniors, Social Security or Medicare,’ said Max Richtman, CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. ‘His answer to Social Security’s long-range solvency is cutting benefits.’”

CNN: Here’s why Social Security and Medicare advocates fear Mike Johnson’s speakership

By Tami Luhby

• In one of his first moves after being elected House speaker, Mike Johnson promised to form a bipartisan debt commission to tackle what he termed “the greatest threat to our national security.”

• The announcement sent shivers down the spines of advocates for Social Security and Medicare.

• That’s because when Johnson chaired the Republican Study Committee a few years ago, the conservative group called for a variety of changes to the entitlement programs that it argued would save them from insolvency.

• However, advocates contend the committee’s proposals are veiled attempts to cut benefits by raising the retirement age and making the benefits less generous, among other changes.

• The Republican Study Committee has long advocated making major changes to the entitlement programs.

• Its fiscal year 2020 budget plan, which was issued when Johnson helmed the group, included a number of controversial proposals. It called for raising the full retirement age to 69, up from 67, and the early retirement age to 64, up from 62.

• As for Medicare, the group would raise the eligibility age to match that of Social Security’s full retirement age and then index it to life expectancy. It would increase premiums and provide what it called “premium support” – which critics deride as vouchers – to allow enrollees to buy private health insurance plans.

• These changes, among others, would cut spending on Social Security by $756 billion over a decade and on Medicare by $1.9 trillion, according to the budget plan.

• Johnson now has the power to have the House take up these issues, though finding bipartisan solutions remains a long shot.

• Advocates, however, argue that lawmakers can hide behind the debt commission and avoid taking individual blame for agreeing to benefit cuts.

• “The new speaker has made it clear he’s not a friend to seniors, Social Security or Medicare,” said Max Richtman, CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “His answer to Social Security’s long-range solvency is cutting benefits.”

• President Joe Biden is also seeking the opportunity to tie Johnson to reducing benefits. A Biden campaign spokesperson released a statement after Johnson’s election saying the new speaker wants to “gut Social Security and Medicare.”