Rand Paul (R-KY) is testing the limits of what a candidate can advocate while still being elected. Yesterday on “Fox News Sunday”, Paul admitted that he would eventually have to raise the retirement age for Social Security, and reduce benefits for Medicare in order to pay for the Bush tax cuts (video to the left). While Paul was very vague about what kind of cuts he would make, the admission by itself is important. In previous elections, Social Security and Medicare have been considered the “third rail” of politics. Politicians who merely talked about making cuts to the popular programs many times found themselves “dead” on election day.

Paul conceded he would have to cut Social Security and Medicare in order to pay for an extension of the Bush tax cuts. As Chris Wallace noted, a full extension of the Bush tax cuts, which Paul advocates for, would reduce the federal revenues by about $4 trillion over the next ten years. The government would either need to add that $4 trillion to national debt, or make some serious cuts to entitlement programs to offset the loss revenue. In his initial answer Paul tries to simply say he will “reduce spending”, but to his credit host Chris Wallace challenges him, saying that government would need to cut entitlement programs to reduce spending that much. It is at this time that Paul agrees he would need to raise the retirement age and cut Medicare benefits as well. Paul’s opponent, Jack Conway, says he would reduce Medicare fraud and close tax loopholes to help pay for the Bush tax cuts. In fairness to Paul, Conway’s cuts would also not completely offset the costs of the extending the tax cuts.

Conway made a courageous move in agreeing to debate Paul on the Republican-friendly Fox News network. Polls (seen on the left) have shown Conway consistently trailing Paul by a small margin. In the past Paul has made a number of mistakes when interviewing before the national media. It is possible that Conway agreed to the debate hoping to get Paul to make one more embarrassing statement on camera. It has yet to be seen whether Paul’s statements on Medicare and Social Security will hurt him with Kentucky voters this November.