Dr. Mehmet Oz, who serves as the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, recently put forward a surprising proposal: he wants seniors to hold off on their retirement plans by at least a year, as reported by MS Now. This idea, floated earlier this month, is apparently for the good of the country, according to the Republican official.
Oz, a former television personality, explained that if older Americans continued in the workforce, they would boost the economy and help save the country money. He even tried to put a positive spin on it, suggesting that seniors who delay retirement would gain “agency over their future.”
Here’s where things get even more interesting, because many GOP officials aren’t just looking at keeping older Americans on the job; they also want to bring younger people into the workforce sooner. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier recently stated that there’s a need to focus on “getting people into the workforce even earlier.” He pointed out that Florida passed legislation last year to help high school students gain hands-on experience and get onto job sites more quickly.
This push to get younger workers started isn’t a brand-new priority for the Republican Party
Back in the wake of the 2010 midterm elections, when the Tea Party movement was gaining significant traction, a number of party officials actually targeted child labor laws. It’s a topic many might have thought was settled with a generations-old national consensus, but it seems some Republicans were eager to reignite a public conversation around it.
For instance, Senator Mike Lee of Utah openly suggested that child labor laws might not even be constitutional. At the same time, Maine’s then-Governor Paul LePage was advocating for rolling back his state’s restrictions on children in the workplace. Even Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa argued that looser child labor laws could potentially help combat childhood obesity.
Before his 2012 presidential campaign, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich went as far as to call existing child labor laws “truly stupid” in 2011. While the issue largely faded from the Republican Party’s immediate agenda for a while, it certainly made a comeback in 2023.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, for example, signed a bill that made it easier for companies to hire children without needing consent from their parents. Similar legislative efforts have been launched in several other states. The right-wing Project 2025 blueprint specifically endorsed rolling back “hazard” regulations concerning child labor. Around that same time, as Attorney General Uthmeier mentioned, Florida also loosened its child labor laws at the direction of Governor Ron DeSantis.
It’ll be fascinating to see if other states follow suit, but the broader picture here tells an important story. As Republicans continue their efforts to remove immigrants from the workforce, it appears they’re feeling increased pressure to fill those roles by bringing in workers from both ends of the age spectrum: seniors and kids.
Published: Feb 19, 2026 02:00 pm