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Surprise! Presidential candidate Joe Biden has previously put Social Security cuts on the table

Yet, what you might find surprising is that early Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, who you'd expect to fight for core Democratic principles in resolving Social Security's imminent cash crunch, including raising or eliminating the earnings cap, has called for Social Security cuts on three separate occasions over the past 12 years. 1. Raising the full retirement age

For those of you who may not recall, this isn't Joe Biden's first go-around as a presidential hopeful for the Democratic ticket. Prior to Barack Obama winning the Democratic nomination in 2008, Biden was one of Obama's competitors for that nomination. Of the many proposals Biden brought to the table in 2007, arguably none was viewed with greater scrutiny than his ideas on buoying retirement savings plans, including Social Security.

While not focusing strictly on cutting benefits, Biden's noted approach, according to NBC News, was to work on a bipartisan solution that would include discussing options such as raising the full retirement age and increasing the earnings cap associated with the payroll tax.

Your full retirement age is the age at which the Social Security Administration deems you eligible to receive 100% of your payout, as determined by your birth year. It's currently set to peak at age 67 in 2022 for those folks born in 1960 or later, and Republicans have proposed gradually increasing this figure to as high as age 70. Raising the full retirement age would require that future generations of working Americans wait longer to collect 100% of their monthly benefit, or that they accept a steeper permanent reduction to their payout if claiming early. Either way, the idea is to combat increasing longevity over many decades and reduce outlays for the program over the long run. Keep in mind that raising the full retirement age is designed to protect existing and near-term retirees from any cuts to their Social Security benefits.

To be clear, Yours Truly favors the bipartisan approach when addressing Social Security's cash shortfall. But to see a prominent Democrat put raising the full retirement age on the table is pretty rare.