GOP Rep. Eyes Medicare, Social Security For DOGE Cuts: ‘We Can Move The Retirement Age Back’

Republican Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) suggested Monday that Medicare and Social Security are on the table when it comes to accomplishing the Department of Government Efficienty’s goal of cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget.

President-elect Donald Trump announced last month that he was charging billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

On Fox Business Network’s Mornings With Maria, Alford explained that the two entitlement programs can be tweaked because “people are living longer.”

“You know they were here the last week speaking to members of Congress and really they weren’t speaking as much that’s were listening, getting some — from all sides of our conference — some ideas to cut our budget,” Alford said of Musk and Ramaswamy.

Alford continued:

We all agree this is an unsustainable area that we’re in right now — almost $36 trillion in debt and we are spending more on the interest on our debt than we are going to spend on the National Defense Authorization Act this year. Over a trillion dollars. And so we’ve got to right the ship and it’s going to mean cuts. It’s going to mean cuts to the 24% of the discretionary spending that we have and it’s also going to mean looking long-term at the front end of some programs like Social Security and Medicare. Not taking anyone off of what they paid into so far. But there is some waste, abuse and fraud in Medicare that we can take those numbers back and add to our general coffers and our treasury. And on the front end on Social Security, I think there’s a way, when people are living longer, they’re retiring later, then on the front end we can move that retirement age back a little bit.

Trump has waffled on whether he will “protect Social Security and Medicare,” as House Republicans continue to suggest raising the retirement age to 69 from 67 for new retirees.

Watch the clip above via Fox Business Network.