For years, the Social Security and Medicare systems have been under assault from the Republican Party, which views the programs as irredeemable socialist institutes. In the Bush years, this attack took the form of introducing privatization that would slowly move Social Security away from the government altogether. Having failed at that, Republicans are slowly refocusing around a new way to target both of these retirement programs: raising the age that people are eligible to take advantage of them. As of this writing, the top expected GOP candidates for the presidency have all endorsed or floated plans that would raise the retirement age.
Source: salon.com