In an AP article “Paul Skidmore’s office is shuttered, his job gone, his 18-month job search fruitless and his unemployment benefits exhausted. So at 63, he plans to file this week for Social Security benefits, three years earlier than planned.” “Like Skidmore, 63-year-old Jan Gissel of Tustin, Calif., also was forced into retirement early. She turned to unemployment benefits when her technical support business failed and filed for Social Security last September. Together, the checks are keeping her afloat.”
I can relate to their situations. It was three months until my 65th birthday when my employer sold out to a competitor. I received a very modest severance package and they extended my health insurance, employer paid, until my birthday. I applied for unemployment insurance. The official date for my social security would not occur until age 65 years and four months. You are allowed to apply for Social Security up to four months prior to your first benefit check. So I applied for that option. However I continued to search for a job. After all, living on Social Security alone would be a shock to most people.
Congressman John Boehner, appearing on Meet the Press, hinted about extending eligibility for Social Security to age 70. If you find yourself unemployed at age 60 or later you will not easily find employment except as a greeter at Wal-Mart.
MR. GREGORY: And so you favor raising the retirement age?
REP. BOEHNER: David, there are a lot of options about how you solve this, but I don’t want to get the cart before the horse. I think it’s important to have this conversation. It’s going to be a difficult conversation, but it’s time to have it and it’s time to come up with some solutions that are done in a bipartisan way to help address these problems.
Coast Contact 
I would keep Guantanamo open to put American Terrorists into. I regard Boehner and his ilk as American Terrorists, out to destroy the middle class, more vicious than Al Quaeda. Social Security has a trust fund, and we can use to it make up any shortfall of people hit with unemployment taking early social security. We could also give the economy a jump start by undoing the stupid Bush tax cuts, and in addition removing the cap on salaries and bonuses paying FICA. The second jump start is hitting companies who outsourced to China and Latin America their production, and penalizing them with a special tariff on goods they ship back to the US. We would wipe out our deficit and be able to invest in high speed trains and other sustainable energy projects [except the big lie of “clean coal”.]