Hear Max Richtman on WTOP Newsradio with news about our new poll on overwhelming pubic support for Social Security & Medicare.
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When a candidate promises to “save these programs for future generations” by raising the retirement age, raising the Medicare eligibility age, privatizing Social Security, changing the COLA formula and means-testing Social Security while exempting near retirees what they’re actually saying is: “We know seniors vote so we’ll protect them now and slash future benefits for their children and grandchildren instead.
via Entitled to Know.
Deficit hawks likely will pressure the White House to accept cuts in Social Security and Medicare for future retirees, protecting those already retired or close to it. Their political goal will be to defang public opposition, since younger workers tend not to focus much on retirement when it is several decades away.
But that approach is not going to work. Retirees and their advocacy groups will fiercely resist cutting benefits down the road, because they understand the critical importance of Social Security and Medicare benefits. They also care about the future retirement of their own children. And numerous polls show that the public opposes benefit cuts - a view that is common across all demographic groups and political affiliations.
via Reuters.
Related Reading:
- New Poll Shows Majorities Do Not Support GOP Proposals for Social Security and Medicare.
- In the poll of likely voters, 79% favor increasing Social Security
benefits — and funding that increase by having wealthy Americans pay
the same rate into Social Security as everyone else. Seventy-seven
percent oppose raising the Social Security retirement age to 69, and a
whopping 93% favor allowing Medicare to negotiate to bring down the
price of prescription drugs.
…Here we are, eleven years later, facing another existential threat to our health and retirement income security. But this time the threat is worse, the peril more palpable. The millions of workers, retirees, the disabled and their families who depend on Social Security and Medicare have cause for grave concern.
More on this issue here.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare’s Max Richtman emphasized the importance of talking about improving and expanding Medicare and Social Security, not just protecting them. He described how he talks to seniors across the country who are shocked that Medicare doesn’t cover, hearing, or vision care. Only by highlighting these gaps in coverage can we work to change them.
via Justice in Aging.
via twitter.
Related Reading:
Trump is wrong, Dems are fighting to save Medicare and Social Security.
The majority party is already hard at work on those cuts. Republicans have released a plan that would raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 and impose stingier cost-of-living adjustments — meaning massive benefit cuts for America’s seniors.
The president’s 2019 budget slashes Social Security Disability (SSDI) benefits by a staggering $64 billion over ten years. His budget director once disingenuously claimed that SSDI is not part of Social Security even though the words “Social Security” are in its name.
These are significant sums, Kaufman says. Still, when he hears Republican lawmakers denounce Medicare and propose reducing benefits, he becomes livid and cites a statistic he saw on the website of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Already, he reports, 45 percent of retirees spend more than one-third of their Social Security benefits on health care, from co-pays for care, to premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket fees for services – such as going to the eye doctor, dentist or audiologist – that are not provided. “We should be on the offensive, pushing for something better,” he says. “What we need is a single payer or socialized health care system.”
via Truth-Out.
Related Reading:
New Poll Shows Majorities Do Not Support GOP Proposals for Social Security and Medicare.
via twitter.
Related Reading:
The Trump administration has sent a grim message to America’s seniors.
President Trump’s 2020 budget proposal shortchanges seniors by:
- Slashing $845 billion from Medicare.
- Cutting $25 billion from Social Security Disability Insurance.
- Gutting Medicaid by 1.5 trillion.
- Cutting the Social Security Administration’s operating budget by 3.5%.
Unfortunately, preserving Medicare and Social Security benefits could be among the first of his promises to go. Trump and Republican leaders in Congress have vowed the repeal of the Affordable Care Act will be one of their first acts. For seniors, that means billions in lost Medicare benefits, the return of the Part D prescription drug donut hole and years of solvency taken from Medicare.
via Entitled to Know.
In Congress, Pence has consistently voted in favor of legislative efforts to cut benefits in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and is one of Congress’ biggest proponents of privatization. The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare scored Mike Pence at 0% on issues important to seniors during the 2011-2012 Congress since he voted for multiple pieces of legislation that would cut benefits and programs that protect senior’s health and financial security.
via Jewish Journal.
Related Reading:
Raising the age at which you can claim Medicare benefits by a year or two, for example, lops off a far larger share of the expected retirement period of a poor person than a rich one.
via VOX.
Related Reading:
- Raising the Social Security Retirement Age: A Cut in Benefits for Future Retirees.
- Those policymakers proposing raising Social Security’s retirement age
should recognize what a dramatic change this would be for millions of
American workers. Instead of protecting future generations, raising the
retirement age will dramatically cut benefits for younger generations of
workers, especially those at lower-income levels.