Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro engaged in a heated debate about Social Security and retirement policy during a Tuesday night appearance on CNN, warning that America’s entitlement system faces imminent financial collapse.
The confrontation occurred during a roundtable discussion on CNN’s “News Night with Abby Phillip,” where Shapiro presented his position against maintaining the current retirement age of 65.
Shapiro argued that the government should not continue distributing Social Security benefits to Americans retiring at the traditional age.
He emphasized the urgent need for reform to prevent national bankruptcy.
“We will go bankrupt,” Shapiro declared to his fellow panelists, highlighting what he views as an unsustainable fiscal trajectory.
The conservative commentator provided demographic statistics to support his argument about the system’s financial burden.
He noted that women who reach age 65 typically live to 85, while men in the same category live to 83.
“Women are living to 85 if they make it to 65, men are living to 83 if they make it to 65 — that’s 20 years on the public dime,” Shapiro stated.
Host Abby Phillip challenged Shapiro’s characterization of Social Security, describing it as a system where Americans contribute funds and later receive those contributions back during retirement.
Shapiro rejected this explanation of the program’s structure and financing mechanisms.
“Well no,” Shapiro responded, “I promise you the amount that people are taking out is not the amount that is going in, which is why we are going bankrupt.”
Phillip maintained her position that Social Security differs from direct government handouts because participants pay into the system throughout their working years.
“Okay, but it’s not the government just handing out a blank check,” Phillip said. “People pay into the Social Security system.”
Shapiro countered by explaining what he views as the actual mechanics of Social Security financing.
He described a system where the government borrows money to meet current obligations.
“No, it’s the government borrowing money … you pay in X dollars and then you get multiple times X dollars when you retire,” Shapiro replied.
“That is how the system works. It is not a lockbox. This is what Al Gore was arguing about in 2000.”
Ana Kasparian, host of “The Young Turks,” entered the debate by challenging Shapiro’s focus on Social Security as a primary driver of national financial problems.
“I completely reject what you just said about how we’re going bankrupt through Social Security. Really? You don’t think the trillions of dollars we’ve spent on wars in the Middle East might have something to do with that?” Kasparian questioned.
Shapiro dismissed Kasparian’s comparison between military spending and Social Security expenditures, stating that defense costs represent a much smaller portion of federal spending.
“That is not even remotely a percentage of what we spend on Social Security,” Shapiro replied.
Kasparian expanded her argument to include additional foreign spending categories, citing support for Israel and Ukraine as significant budget drains.
“We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Israel, on Ukraine. I mean, honestly, these foreign conflicts have a lot more to do with our national debt as opposed to us paying into [Social Security],” Kasparian added.
Shapiro categorically rejected Kasparian’s assertion about the relative impact of foreign spending versus Social Security on the national debt.
“That is just untrue,” Shapiro fired back.
Federal budget data from 2024 supports Shapiro’s position regarding the relative scale of different spending categories.
Social Security represented 21 percent of the federal budget, totaling $1.5 trillion in expenditures.
Defense spending accounted for 13 percent of the budget during the same period, reaching $872 billion.
International programs, including humanitarian aid, received less than 1 percent of total federal budget allocations.
The largest portion of the 2024 federal budget went to health insurance programs, which consumed 24 percent of total spending.
Social Security ranked as the second-largest budget category by percentage.
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