Highlights:
VIDEO: Ramaswamy Said He Was “Up For” Entitlement Reform, Including Changes To Social Security And Medicare, After Economic Growth. According to a NewsNation Town Hall with Ramaswamy via YouTube, “VITTERT: You said there’s a hard truth. The other hard truth is that we have an exploding national debt. RAMASWAMY: Yes, we do. VITTERT: And we are at a point where it pretty clearly within the next couple of years there’s a possibility of interest rates staying where they are, that the interest on the national debt is going to be more than the tax receipts of the U.S. government. The only way to fix that is entitlement reform. Medicare, Social Security, possibly Medicaid reform. Are you up for that? RAMASWAMY I am up for that after we have delivered economic growth.” [NewsNation Ramaswamy Town Hall via YouTube, 8/15/23]
Ramaswamy Said There Would Be A Time For A Conversation On Means Testing Social Security And MedicareWhen The Economy Was Doing Better. According to a transcript of remarks by Ramaswamy on CNN Tonight, “PHILLIP: Will you pledge then to not touch Social Security and Medicare? Let's take into consideration your economic plans, but would you pledge not to touch Social Security and Medicare if you are elected president? RAMASWAMY: I do. And, in fact, the irony is that when we're growing at high GDP growth rate again, by the time I'm out of office in January 2033, we will be growing at over 4 percent. Ironically, it's actually when the country is at its strongest economically, when our citizens are making more money that we can then have a rational conversation about whether we have the political consensus to draw distinctions between people who have, say, made $10 million or more in their lifetime versus those who have not when it comes to Social Security or Medicare.” [CNN Tonight, 7/6/23]
VIDEO: Ramaswamy Said He Wanted To “Allow People To Invest It In A Diversified Portfolio That Invests Including The Market.” According to a transcript of Ramaswamy’s remarks in Concord, NH via YouTube, “RAMASWAMY: Then I think we ought to learn some lessons from the past. Back when we did have a Social Security surplus, it wasn't that long ago, if we had just allowed that money to be invested by Social Security in the same way that your financial adviser would recommend that you invest your money, in a diversified portfolio, we would be swimming in surplus today. And yet, we’re in deficit. So what does that mean? It's the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy is the source of the problem. And if we don't learn from our mistakes of the past, we're destined to make the same mistakes in the future. That bureaucracy acts as the impediment to economic growth; pare it down, unshackle ourselves. Unleash the beast of our U.S. economy. From a position of growth we are in a much better place. Fix the quirks. Get back to a place of surplus and then actually allow people to invest it in a diversified portfolio that invests including the market so that we can catch up and never make this mistake again. That is what I intend to do against the backdrop principle of no cuts for seniors because we have to ensure trust for people to get what they've actually been promised.” [Ramaswamy speech via YouTube, 8/3/23]
VIDEO: Ramaswamy Said ”We Should Have Allowed People To Actually Invest Their Social Security Money” In The Stock Market. According to AARP via YouTube, “RAMASWAMY: And when we do, I think we have to be honest about learning from a prior mistake. Twenty years ago, we should have allowed people to actually invest their Social Security money, or the government to invest Social Security money, in the same way that we would have allowed a private citizen to do, in the stock market and in bonds and otherwise. That’s a good way of knowing that we would have had a Social Security surplus today if we had done those things. Learn from our past mistakes to make sure we don’t make those mistakes again in the future.” [AARP via YouTube, viewed 2/16/24]