(The Root) — The bipartisan co-chairs of apresidential commission that was convened to cut the budget deficit recommended on Wednesday raising the Social Security retirement age to 68 by 2050 and 69 by 2075. Certain physically taxing jobs would be given a “hardship exception,” according to the commission’s report, but if Congress enacts the retirement extensions, the majority of Americans can look forward to working until they’re almost 70 within the next several decades. Elsewhere on Wednesday, theAmerican Human Development Project released a related report, though, if you weren’t looking for it, the correlation between the two was subtle at first. According to the AHDP’s research, African Americans living in Washington, D.C., have a lower life expectancy, at 71 years, than African Americans in any state. Whites in the District, on the other hand, have a longer life expectancy than whites in any state, at 83.1 years. The disparity is shocking, but it’s nothing new: In 1999, for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared that the average American could expect to live 77.8 years, while the average African American could expect to live only 73.1 years.
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