Nikki Haley: ‘I would not raise taxes’ to fund insolvent entitlements

While Nikki Haley has dared to touch the “third rail of politics” in her calls to reform entitlement spending, the 2024 hopeful pledged she “would not raise taxes” to fund the coming shortfalls for Medicare and Social Security during an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner.

“We have to acknowledge that there is a problem, and that’s why I think anyone who says entitlements are off the table is not being honest with the American people,” the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations said. “I think we have to look at the fact that we don’t want to hurt anybody that’s paid in. We don’t want to hurt anybody that’s given. But let’s look at the younger generation. Let’s look at those kids in their 20s and say, ‘What are we going to do differently? Are we going to come to a head at a certain point?’ Yes. That’s why I’m big on cutting spending. So I’m big on not borrowing. That’s why I’m focusing on the fact that we’re spending more than our economy, that we’re borrowing just to pay our interest payments. But no, I’m not going to raise taxes to do that.”

Absent entitlement reform by the federal government, Social Security, and healthcare entitlements will cost more than 15% of our annual economic output by the midpoint of the century. Social Security and Medicare alone are responsible for the entire $116 trillion budget deficit projected over the next three decades.

“We have to get creative and figure out what do we have to cut,” Haley conceded, a significant policy departure from former President Donald Trump, who won the presidency in part because of his opposition to entitlement reform.