COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s senior senator said Monday that Congress should require people to work longer in the future to collect full Social Security retirement benefits, though he offered no specific age suggestions.
“Why is that?” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham asked rhetorically at the Columbia Rotary Club’s monthly meeting.
“There are less people working and people living longer,” the South Carolina Republican said to answer his own question.
Something must be done to keep the program solvent and ensure payments continue well into the future, he told a room full of constituents mostly 60 and above, according to a show of hands by age group.
Americans can start receiving monthly retirement benefits as early as age 62. But under a deal struck during the Reagan administration, anyone born after Jan. 1, 1960, can’t collect full benefits unless they wait until they turn 67.
But that 42-year-old deal didn’t solve the problem indefinitely.
The federal government’s Social Security reserves for retirement benefits will be depleted in 2033, according to an annual report last May to the Social Security Board of Trustees.
Graham stressed Monday he believes the program that aids almost 1.3 million South Carolinians must continue.
“Social Security really matters for a lot of people, and I don’t want to lose it,” he said. “So, let’s sit down together and … save it.”
More than 73 million people nationwide received Social Security benefits in January 2025. Not all of them are retired. About 4.9 million people received payments due solely to a disability. Recipients also include young survivors, according to figures from the Social Security Administration.
In 2021, the program began paying out more in benefits than it collected from workers. With officials predicting that benefit reductions of some sort will be necessary in less than a decade, Graham proposed looking at the past for inspiration to fix the future.
The agreement that raised the age to 67 was negotiated by President Ronald Reagan and Democrat House Speaker Tip O’Neill in 1983. The two hammered out a deal that was praised for solving short-term issues but also allowed long-term security.
“That really helped Social Security. We probably have to do that one more time,” Graham said Monday.
Graham said he hopes President Donald Trump “will entertain that thought before he leaves office.”
The 69-year-old senator from Seneca lost both his parents by the time he was 22 and had a sister nine years younger who needed support.
In the wake of his parents’ deaths, Graham moved in with his aunt and uncle and said he was helped tremendously by Social Security benefits given to family members after somebody dies.
“If it weren’t for Social Security survivor benefits, we’d have had a hard time making it,” Graham told the audience.
During her unsuccessful run for president last year, former Gov. Nikki Haley proposed raising the retirement age for younger generations and limiting benefits for the wealthy in order to prevent Social Security from going bankrupt. She never gave specifics on those ideas, but some South Carolina voters held even the suggestion of raising the age against her.
Conversations about the future of Social Security and other government programs like Medicare and Medicaid come at a time when Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency are flexing their cost-reducing muscles.
The Social Security Administration announced Feb. 27 it would soon implement “significant workforce reductions.” The next day, the agency clarified that the goal is to reduce its workforce from 57,000 to 50,000. Rumors of a 50% reduction are false, reads the Feb. 28 release.
At a time when Republicans are publicizing their efforts to cut spending, the future of Social Security and other assistant programs could be a potential campaign issue.
Graham is seeking a fifth term in 2026 to the U.S. Senate.
According to his last quarterly campaign filing, he has $15.6 million in the bank available for his campaign. His reelection bid is co-led by fellow U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Gov. Henry McMaster.
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