Fox’s Maria Bartiromo embraces raising the retirement age for Social Security

Projections show that this wouldn’t meaningfully extend solvency, but eliminating the payroll tax income cap would extend it by more than 20 years

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

On the October 7 edition of Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget President Maya MacGuineas offered several suggestions for extending the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund, which the 2025 Social Security trustees report says will be depleted in 2033, resulting in a significant benefit cut for current and future beneficiaries.

Anchor Maria Bartiromo chose to fixate on the proposal to raise the Social Security retirement age instead of lifting the payroll tax cap, with MacGuineas agreeing such a benefit cut “could be win-win.” In reality, projection scenarios from the trustees report show that raising the retirement age (from 67 currently to 70 for future retirees) would do virtually nothing to extend the Trust Fund’s solvency, and eliminating the payroll tax cap instead would extend solvency by at least two decades.

As Bartiromo noted, she recently hosted Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano on her program and advocated for raising the retirement age, an agenda she has repeatedly pushed on-air. 

From the October 7, 2025, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria

MAYA MACGUINEAS (COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET): We have to fix Social Security. It becomes insolvent in seven years. We need to look at reasonable things like means testing, raising the retirement age, lifting the payroll tax cap.

MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Yeah.

MACGUINEAS: We have to change the way the health care system is delivered to generate savings. And we have $25 trillion in tax breaks over the next decade. We could limit a lot of those and help start to close this gap.

MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Yeah, it's a great point that you make, particularly about the Social Security age issue, because that seems like an easy one. It wouldn't affect the people who are very close to retirement. They're going to get what they expected. But younger people who may not even be expecting it, why not move the retirement age higher, given that we're living longer?

MACGUINEAS: Absolutely. It could. Absolutely. It could be win-win in terms of expectations. 

BARTIROMO: Yeah.

MACGUINEAS: When the program started, retirement age was 65, life expectancy was 62. So it made sense. Now the retirement age is up to 67 and life expectancy is in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and growing quickly. Young people don't think they're going to get anything, like you just said. So if we can lock in benefits, but you are expected to work longer, assuming that you're able to, they would come out ahead of where they think they're going to be.

Nobody's touching current retirees’ benefits. The AARP should stop trying to scare people and help become a part of the solution here. And we should talk about adjusting the program for the things that have changed in the way that we're all living our lives. So that's a great place to start.

BARTIROMO: Yeah.

MACGUINEAS: Everybody behind the scenes knows that it makes sense. It's just that politicians keep demagoguing it when it's a very reasonable policy.

BARTIROMO: Yeah. And by the way, I have asked [Social Security Administrator] Frank Bisignano this same question, and it seemed to me that he was thinking about that, and that was certainly a serious contender on the table.