Lavish Federal Requirements

Statement

Mr. Speaker, last week there were headlines saying that leaders on both sides of the aisle agree that we need to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70. Before we do that, we need to stop spending hundreds of billions we do not have on very unnecessary foreign wars, but we also need to revise the entire Federal retirement system--both civilian and military.

We cannot change the retirement benefits for those already in the system. The political opposition would just be too strong. But we need to inform new Federal hires and new military recruits that we can no longer allow healthy, able-bodied people to retire in their late thirties or even in their forties or fifties.

Local police fight street crime. Almost no Federal law enforcement today is physical in nature. Early retirement in most Federal law enforcement can no longer be justified. Working as a waiter or waitress is more physically demanding than most Federal Government positions for which we now grant early retirement.

With a $13 trillion national debt, Mr. Speaker, we simply cannot afford to give relatively young people lavish retirement benefits.

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