Deficit Panel Considers Raising Retirement Age

The leaders of President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission launched a daring assault on mushrooming federal deficits today, proposing reducing annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security, gradually raising the retirement age to 69, and taking aim at popular tax breaks such as the mortgage interest deduction. They also call for cuts in farm subsidies, foreign aid, and the Defense Department's budget, along with an overhaul of the tax code.

The plan would raise the regular pension retirement age to 68 in about 2050 and to 69 in 2075. There's one big caveat: The plan by Chairman Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson does not look like it can win the support from 14 commission members that is needed to force a debate in Congress. Members of the commission will now begin hashing out the details to try to find a compromise. (More deficit stories.)