[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 107 (Tuesday, July 20, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H5736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     STOP EARLY FEDERAL RETIREMENT

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, last week there were headlines saying that 
leaders on both sides of the aisle agree that we need to raise the 
Social Security retirement age to 70. Before we do that, we need to 
stop spending hundreds of billions we do not have on very unnecessary 
foreign wars, but we also need to revise the entire Federal retirement 
system--both civilian and military.
  We cannot change the retirement benefits for those already in the 
system. The political opposition would just be too strong. But we need 
to inform new Federal hires and new military recruits that we can no 
longer allow healthy, able-bodied people to retire in their late 
thirties or even in their forties or fifties.
  Local police fight street crime. Almost no Federal law enforcement 
today is physical in nature. Early retirement in most Federal law 
enforcement can no longer be justified. Working as a waiter or waitress 
is more physically demanding than most Federal Government positions for 
which we now grant early retirement.
  With a $13 trillion national debt, Mr. Speaker, we simply cannot 
afford to give relatively young people lavish retirement benefits.

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