Former Latest Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday that U.S. leaders “must cope with Social Security” and vowed to not draw back from entitlement reform if he becomes the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
“We’ve to have a look at things like means testing for the very wealthy [who] needn’t get Social Security,” Christie said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“And secondly, for people of their 30s and 40s we’d like to think about, , raising the retirement age,” he said.
Christie, one in all the newest entrants in the first race, delved into his campaign policy platform in between attacks on former President Donald Trump, the clear Republican frontrunner. He slammed Trump as a “paper tiger” who has yet to be challenged by the remaining of the sector, bashed him for ballooning the U.S. deficit and sounded off on Trump’s recent remarks about his criminal classified documents case.
“You see a few of this crazy stuff he said last night,” Christie said on CNBC, referring to Trump’s latest interview on Fox News, when he said he didn’t immediately reply to a subpoena for the documents partly because he was “very busy.”
“What number of rounds of golf has he played within the two and a half years since he left office?” Christie said.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 37 counts including willfully retaining national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice. His federal criminal case has been tentatively set to go to trial on Aug. 14, though it’s prone to be delayed.
Pivoting to the economy, Christie said “excessive government spending” was the basis reason for recent inflation woes. “We have got to bring spending under control, we have got to reform out entitlement programs,” he said.
Christie also rejected the potential for raising taxes as a technique to address the debt. “You will have to revitalize the economy to bring more growth, and secondly you might have to cut back spending,” Christie said.
And “we’d like to cope with Social Security,” Christie said, noting that this system is scheduled to be unable to pay full advantages starting in 2034.
Politicians are sometimes reluctant to debate proposals to restructure Social Security and Medicare, two highly popular government programs upon which tens of tens of millions of U.S. seniors rely. Strong majorities of U.S. adults across the political spectrum consistently say they oppose cutting Medicare and Social Security advantages.
Trump has vowed not to chop the programs, and his nearest competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has backed off his prior support for entitlement reforms.
But Christie said he “after all” will speak about those issues if he becomes the nominee. “I’m talking about them without delay,” he said.
Christie, 60, faces a steep uphill climb if he hopes to overtake Trump in the first. National polls of the GOP field often give the previous president large double-digit leads over DeSantis, his top rival. Christie has tended to attain within the low-to-mid single digits, and a few surveys have shown his favorability rankings underwater amongst Republican voters.
“Those numbers are national numbers, and nobody’s run a campaign against him yet,” Christie said when asked about Trump’s polling lead.
