Business Roundtable-member CEOs Gary Loveman of Caesars Entertainment and Randall Stephenson of AT&T briefed reporters Wednesday on BRT's recommendations to modernize Social Security and Medicare, reforms necessary to preserve the programs while putting the United States on a long-term path toward fiscal stability.

The report is "Social Security Reform and Medicare Modernization Proposals," available here. An audio file of the hourlong news briefing, which also included BRT President John Engler, can be accessed here and a transcript is here.

Loveman, who chairs BRT's Health and Retirement Committee -- Stephenson is vice chairman -- appeared afterward on Fox New's Neil Cavuto's program. The video is below.

 

Loveman also had an op-ed published in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, "How to Save the Federal Safety Nets," which argued: "The fiscal cliff has been averted, preventing immediate economic calamity. But for long-term economic growth, we must get serious about entitlement reform and government spending."

More news coverage...

• Bloomberg, "Business Groups Propose Raising Age for Entitlement Benefits"
• Financial Times (subscription), "Call to raise age for US’s Medicare"
• Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "CEOs: Raise age for Social Security and Medicare"'
• Associated Press, "Business CEOs call for raising retirement age"
• Dow Jones, "Chief Executives Group Pushes for Entitlement Reform"
• Las Vegas Review-Journal, "Loveman-led panel suggests sweeping changes to Social Security, Medicare"
• U.S. News and World Report, "CEOs Propose Raising Retirement Age, Means-Testing Social Security"
• Roll Call, "K Street Files: Business Roundtable Weighs In on Entitlements"
• CNBC, "Should We Have to Work Until 70? These CEOs Say Yes"
• The Hill (blog), "Business Roundtable backs Medicare privatization" [Not so. Here's audio of Loveman explaining the issue.]
• And, finally, populist polemics -- surprise! -- from a Huffington Post writer, "How Extreme Is the Business Roundtable? Check Out Its Attack on the Elderly." Read the recommendations and transcript and one sees the attack is risible.