Nikki Haley is 'wooing' GOP donors by promising to change Social Security

Although former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is way behind frontrunner Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, various polls show that in a hypothetical matchup, she would be the most difficult for incumbent President Joe Biden to defeat. A Messenger/Harris X poll released in early December showed Haley with a 10 percent lead over Biden if, by some chance, she were to become the nominee.

But Haley, CNN reports, is tackling an issue that can be risky for presidential candidates: possible changes to Social Security.

"As she woos her party's wealthy donors," CNN's Fredreka Schouten reports in an article published on December 5, "former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is promoting a policy that sets her apart from her closest competitors for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination: a willingness to stake out positions on the politically fraught issue of overhauling the nation's entitlement programs."

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Haley, according to Schouten, "has called for several changes to the nation's safety net programs, including increasing the age at which today's younger workers would become eligible for Social Security retirement benefits and limiting the growth of benefits the wealthy receive." And Haley's "positions on entitlement reform, Schouten notes, will "face greater scrutiny as the January 15 Iowa Caucuses draw closer."

"Nearly 67 million Americans have received monthly Social Security benefits this year, and more than 66 million people are enrolled in Medicare," Schouten explains. "Polling shows little support for major changes to the programs themselves to help shore up their finances."

The CNN reporter adds, "A March CNN/SSRS poll of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, for instance, found that 59 percent said it was 'essential' that the GOP nominee for president 'pledges to maintain Social Security and Medicare as they are.' And just 7 percent of Republicans surveyed in October in an AP/NORC poll said that the government was spending too much on Social Security."

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Read CNN's full report at this link.