The man who once walked into a Senate committee room closet during a hearing and stayed in there to save face is now saying he’s been misquoted about his position on Social Security.
Pressler told the Argust Leader (a newspaper in South Dakota, a state Pressler occasionally visits and in which he is running for Senate) that he did not support raising the retirement age for Social Security benefits.
That contradicts what he told National Journal last year:
Pressler explained that the rationale for his candidacy – at least at the time – was reducing the national deficit with a so-called “grand bargain.” That meant Republicans needed to accept higher tax rates while Democrats agreed to social spending cuts.
“You’re talking about raising the retirement age over a 15-year period?” National Journal asked.
“Yes,” responded Pressler, who served as a volunteer on Fix the Debt, a corporate-backed group that advocated both entitlement cuts and higher taxes as a way to reduce the deficit. Later, a reporter asked again if he had correctly understood that the former senator wanted to gradually increase the Social Security retirement age.
“That is correct,” he said.