Pence on ‘Reforming’ Social Security, Medicare: ‘I Think We Can Replace the New Deal Programs with a Better Deal’

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday on FNC’s “America Reports” that there needed to be a conversation about reforming Social Security and Medicare.

When asked about the debt limit, Pence said, “I commend Speaker McCarthy for the way that he’s engaged President Biden and said, look, we have to have we have to have budget cuts. We have to have reforms that are associated with it. But it’s enormously important that we that we pay the nation’s bills. And I’m confident that they will do that. All that being said, Sandra, I will tell you that to have a national debt the size of our nation’s economy is unsustainable. The last time this happened was after World War II, and the only way we got over it was through sound economic policies and a post-war, booming economy.”

He continued, “Now we literally have a paralysis in Washington, D.C., that says we’re never even going to talk about reforming 70% of the federal budget. That’s what entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid are all in that cash. And we simply are not going to restore the fiscal health of this nation by simply nibbling at the edges of the federal budget. I submit to you that we have to have a conversation about reforming entitlements in the days ahead. I think we can replace the New Deal programs with a better deal. I think in Social Security, you can keep all the promises that you made to seniors. You can people that will retire within the next 20 years. No changes, but to give options to younger Americans to invest a portion of their Social Security in a private savings account and get a better deal, I think is an idea whose time will come.”

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