Even on bread-and-butter fiscal issues like Social Security and Medicare, the candidates managed to trade insults.
Clinton suggested that Trump would avoid paying taxes if she was able to raise the maximum taxable cap on annual earnings, which is $118,500 this year and $127,200 next year, for Social Security payroll taxes. In response, Trump called her “such a nasty woman.”
She also proposed enhancing Social Security benefits for low-income workers and for women, but did not spell out how she would pay for those increases.
Trump pledged to cut taxes as well as repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act when asked by the debate moderator Chris Wallace if the candidate would “make a deal to save Medicare and Social Security that included both tax increases and benefit cuts.”
Trump campaign officials said that his policies would encourage economic growth that would “secure Social Security for the future,” but gives few details for how such policies would work.
Clinton’s campaign said she would oppose reducing cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security beneficiaries and fight any efforts to raise the retirement age to qualify for benefits.
In the past, Clinton was supportive of the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan, which would have reduced Social Security benefits, according to allegedly hacked private emails posted by WikiLeaks. The Clinton campaign has not confirmed the authenticity of these documents.
