Dr. Oz Is Not the Retirement Guru America Needs

Mehmet Oz is not an economist, but he occasionally plays one on TV. Speaking last week at a televised forum on mental health, the medical doctor and administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed an idea for how to boost the US economy: Americans should just work longer. Adding a year of work would generate $3 trillion, he said, enough to “remove the [national] debt.”

Oz was careful not to suggest raising Social Security’s full retirement age, a longtime Republican policy now verboten in the populist era of the party. Mitt Romney favored raising it to 68 in his 2012 campaign for president, but by the 2024 campaign, Nikki Haley was excoriated for suggesting any increase at all. Oz simply encouraged Americans to work longer, instead of declaring that they must, and noted the health, tax and economic benefits for the country.