GOP candidate suggests raising retirement age amid Social Security shortfall in new video

Newly obtained video shows a Maryland Republican express support in 2020 for raising the retirement age to address a potential shortfall in Social Security benefits.

Neil Parrott, who is running for Congress in Democratic Rep. David Trone's vacated seat, told the Washington County Chamber of Commerce that the country needs to consider raising the retirement age to address a looming Social Security shortfall.

Speaking to the group in October 2020 in a video obtained by Raw Story, Parrott said, "Do I see a shortfall in the future? I do."

"And what plan of action we need to take, well, I think that we're living much longer — a lot longer than people anticipated when they started Social Security," he said. "And what we'll have to look at is raising the retirement age. It wouldn't affect people who are about to retire. I just turned 50, and I don't know if 65 is a realistic time to collect Social Security; that's drying up."

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Parrott has a history of votes that disproportionately impact lower-income seniors, including voting against providing subsidies and food stamps for seniors in need.

A bill he opposed in the Maryland legislature in March 2020 required "the Secretary of Aging to pay to certain low-income seniors up to a $1,500 subsidy from state general funds to help low-income seniors reside in assisted living programs; increasing, except under certain circumstances, a certain subsidy in effect for certain periods of time-based on annual growth in the consumer price index; requiring an applicable area agency to determine the amount of the monthly subsidy for a resident of an assisted living program and, in doing so, to make a certain deduction for personal expenses; etc.”

A second bill in March 2016 required "the State to provide a supplement to increase the total benefit to $30 per month to a household that includes an individual who is at least 62 years old and receives a federally funded benefit in an amount less than $30 per month under the food stamp program.”

He was also the only lawmaker to vote to classify bingo as illegal at senior living facilities in 2019 and again in 2020.

According to the Maryland Department of Aging, the state has about 6 million people living within its borders, about 23 percent of whom are over 60, according to 2020 Census data. It is expected to grow to over 26 percent by 2040.

April McClain-Delaney, his Democratic challenger, has spent the last two years working at the Department of Commerce as deputy assistant secretary for communications and information. She previously served as the director for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that focused on technology and children.

See the clip below or at the link here.

- YouTubeyoutube.com