Where Presidential Campaigns Stand on Senior Citizen
Issues Found on Websites
Fairly distinct difference can be found in
presentations by Obama and McCain campaigns
Oct.
21, 2008 Early voting is in high gear across America and some predict
more than half of the voters in this U.S. election will take advantage
of this opportunity to vote before election day. It is late for any new
issues, so, SeniorJournal.com has tried to piece together the proposals
each of the major presidential campaigns are offering for senior
citizens.
Older Boomers most likely to support McCain after
favoring Obama in April; Pew Research finds McCain's Negatives Mostly
Political, Obama's More Personal
Typically, the national campaigns try to appeal to
senior voters on issues involving the government entitlement programs
Social Security and Medicare. Additionally, the usually address other
retirement issues.
From the available information, here are the major
issues and differences in the campaigns on senior citizen issues.
Social Security:
McCain/Palin
● believes that we may meet our obligations to
the retirees of today and the future without raising taxes
● supports supplementing the current Social
Security system with personal accounts
Obama/Biden
● do not believe it is necessary or fair to
hardworking seniors to raise the retirement age
● strongly opposed to privatizing Social
Security
● does not support uncapping the full payroll
tax of 12.4 percent rate considering plans that would ask those making
over $250,000 to pay in the range of 2 to 4 percent more in total
(combined employer and employee)
Medicare
McCain/Palin
● believes that we can achieve savings in
Medicare without reducing benefits or eligibility.
● eliminate fraud and abuse to ensure that
nearly $60 billion a year, almost 10 percent of total Medicare spending
● ensure that drug premiums for the wealthiest
Americans are not being subsidized by the middle class.
● proposed comprehensive, pro-market health care
and Medicare reforms to reduce health care costs and control increases
in premiums (Editors note: details not found)
● Reduce drug costs by allowing greater use of
generics (including bio-generics)
Obama/Biden
● will allow the federal government to negotiate
for lower drug prices for the Medicare program, just as it does to lower
prices for our veterans
● support allowing seniors to import safe
prescription drugs from overseas
● will prevent pharmaceutical companies from
blocking cheap and safe generic drugs from the market.
● to eliminate waste eliminate subsidies to the
private insurance Medicare Advantage program
● support closing the "doughnut hole" in the
Medicare Part D prescription drug program
Other Senior Issues
McCain/Palin
● withdrawals from tax-preferred accounts - IRAs
And 401(k)s - should be taxed at lowest rate - 10 percent - in 2008 And
2009. This will apply to the first $50,000 withdrawn from these accounts
each year.
Obama/Biden
● ensure that all employees who have company
pensions receive detailed annual disclosures about their pension fund's
investments
● will eliminate all income taxation of seniors
making less than $50,000 per year
● will increase funding for the Low Income Home
Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) which helps low-income citizens
many of them seniors pay their winter heating and summer cooling bills
● will engage more interested seniors into
public service opportunities by expanding and improving programs like
Senior Corps to connect seniors with quality volunteer opportunities
Information from campaign Websites
The Website for the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama
and Sen. Joe Biden has one section in their index of information on the
issues that addresses these senior issues. We have reproduced this page
below as it was published on October 21, 2008.
The Website for Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah
Palin does not have a specific issues page for senior citizens,
entitlement programs or retirement. The information provided for their
campaign is pieced together from statements pertaining to these issues
from throughout their section on the campaign issues.
Barack Obama and
Joe Biden's Plan for Senior Citizens
Senior Citizens & Retirement
Insecure Retirement Savings: Retirement
savings are near a historic low and 75 million working Americans lack
employer-based retirement plans. Too many companies have dumped their
pension obligations, leaving workers in the cold.
Income Security: With skyrocketing health
care, energy and housing costs, and the risk of being defrauded by
insurance companies, too many seniors do not have the resources to live
comfortably.
The Plan
Protect Social Security
Obama and Biden are committed to ensuring Social
Security is solvent and viable for the American people, now and in the
future. Obama and Biden will be honest with the American people about
the long-term solvency of Social Security and the ways we can address
the shortfall. Obama and Biden will protect Social Security benefits for
current and future beneficiaries alike.
And they do not believe it is necessary or fair to
hardworking seniors to raise the retirement age. Obama and Biden are
strongly opposed to privatizing Social Security. As part of a bipartisan
plan that would be phased in over many years, they will ask those making
over $250,000 to contribute a bit more to Social Security to keep it
sound.
Obama does not support uncapping the full payroll
tax of 12.4 percent rate. Instead, he and Biden are considering
plans that would ask those making over $250,000 to pay in the range of 2
to 4 percent more in total (combined employer and employee).
Strengthen Retirement Savings
● Reform Corporate Bankruptcy Laws to Protect
Workers and Retirees: Current bankruptcy laws protect banks before
workers.
Obama and Biden will protect pensions by putting
promises to workers higher on the list of debts that companies cannot
shed; ensuring that the bankruptcy courts do not demand more sacrifice
from workers than executives; telling companies that they cannot issue
executive bonuses while cutting worker pensions; increasing the amount
of unpaid wages and benefits workers can claim in court; and limiting
the circumstances under which retiree benefits can be reduced.
● Require Full Disclosure of Company Pension
Investments: Obama and Biden will ensure that all employees who have
company pensions receive detailed annual disclosures about their pension
fund's investments. This will provide retirees important resources to
make their pension fund more secure.
● Eliminate Income Taxes for Seniors Making
Less Than $50,000: Obama and Biden will eliminate all income
taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This will provide
an immediate tax cut averaging $1,400 to 7 million seniors and relieve
millions from the burden of filing tax returns.
● Create Automatic Workplace Pensions:
The Obama-Biden retirement security plan will automatically enroll
workers in a workplace pension plan. Under their plan, employers who do
not currently offer a retirement plan, will be required to enroll their
employees in a direct-deposit IRA account that is compatible to existing
direct-deposit payroll systems. Employees may opt-out if they choose.
Experts estimate that this program will increase the savings
participation rate for low and middle-income workers from its current 15
percent level to around 80 percent.
● Expand Retirement Savings Incentives for
Working Families: Obama and Biden will ensure savings incentives are
fair to all workers by creating a generous savings match for low and
middle-income Americans. Their plan will match 50 percent of the first
$1,000 of savings for families that earn less than $75,000. The savings
match will be automatically deposited into designated personal accounts.
Over 80 percent of these savings incentives will go to new savers.
● Prevent Age Discrimination: Obama and
Biden will fight job discrimination for aging employees by strengthening
the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and empowering the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission to prevent all forms of
discrimination.
Affordable Health Care
● Provide Cheaper Prescription Drugs: Our
seniors pay the highest prices in the world for brand-name drugs. To
lower drug costs, Obama and Biden will allow the federal government to
negotiate for lower drug prices for the Medicare program, just as it
does to lower prices for our veterans. They also support allowing
seniors to import safe prescription drugs from overseas, and will
prevent pharmaceutical companies from blocking cheap and safe generic
drugs from the market.
● Protect and Strengthen Medicare: Obama
and Biden are committed to the long-term strength of the Medicare
program. They will reduce waste in the Medicare system, including
eliminating subsidies to the private insurance Medicare Advantage
program, and tackle fundamental health care reform to improve the
quality and efficiency of our healthcare system. They support closing
the "doughnut hole" in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program.
● Provide Transparency to Medicare
Prescription Drug Plans: Many seniors are enrolled in Medicare
prescription drug plans that are actually more expensive for them than
other available plans. Obama and Biden will require companies to send
Medicare beneficiaries a full list of the drugs and fees they paid the
previous year to help seniors determine which plans can better reduce
their out-of-pocket costs and improve their health.
● Strengthen Long-Term Care Options: As
president, Obama will work to give seniors choices about their care,
consistent with their needs, and not biased towards institutional care.
He will work to reform the financing of long term care to protect
seniors and families. He will work to improve the quality of elder care,
including by training more nurses and health care workers.
Protect and Honor Seniors
● Ensure Heating Assistance: Obama and
Biden will increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program (LIHEAP) which helps low-income citizens many of them seniors
pay their winter heating and summer cooling bills.
● Support Senior Volunteer Efforts:
Retired Americans have a wide range of skills and knowledge to
contribute to local and national public service efforts. Obama and Biden
will engage more interested seniors into public service opportunities by
expanding and improving programs like Senior Corps to connect seniors
with quality volunteer opportunities.
Barack Obama's Record
● Social Security and Pensions: In the
midst of the 2005 debate over Social Security privatization, Obama gave
a major speech at the National Press Club forcefully arguing against
privatization. He also repeatedly voted against Republican amendments
that aimed to privatize Social Security or cut benefits. Obama has also
voted to force companies to properly fund their pension plans so
taxpayers don't end up footing the bill.
● Medicare: Obama has supported a number
efforts to strengthen Medicare, including voting for legislation to
allow Medicare to negotiate for cheaper prescription drug prices and to
extend the enrollment period for low-income beneficiaries.
● Protecting Seniors: After reports that
lobbyists, but not the American people, received information about the
most unsafe nursing homes in the country, Barack Obama demanded the
Department of Health and Human Services release that information to the
public. Following Obama's letter, the names of the four Iowa care
facilities cited for unsafe care were released to the public. Obama's
efforts follow his successful efforts in Illinois to make nursing home
information public and strengthen elder abuse laws.
For More Information about Barack Obama and Joe
Biden's Plan -
Read the Speech
>> For updates on the senior page at Obama-Biden
click here
John McCain's
Plan for Senior Citizens
Medicare
John McCain believes that we can achieve savings in
Medicare without reducing benefits or eligibility. He has proposed
common-sense reforms that will not only put Medicare on a path of
financial stability but ensure access to quality care for millions of
Americans. Some of the policies proposed by the McCain plan include:
● Promote payment reform that allows us to move
away from the current fragmented and volume-based service to a system
which rewards coordinated and quality focused care.
● Eliminate Medicare fraud and abuse to ensure
that nearly $60 billion a year, almost 10 percent of total Medicare
spending, that goes to line the pocket of criminals instead of providing
quality care for seniors.
● Ensure that drug premiums for the wealthiest
Americans are not being subsidized by the middle class.
● Promote a new generation of treatment models
that better manage chronic care conditions while rewarding prevention
and wellness.
● Greater use of Health IT and medical homes to
promote greater co-ordination of care.
● Reduce drug costs by allowing greater use of
generics (including bio-generics).
Elements of the Pension and Family Security
Plan:
● SENIORS: Lower Taxes On Seniors Tapping Their
Retirement Accounts.
● SENIORS: Suspend Tax Rules That Force Seniors
To Sell Their Stocks In The Midst Of This Financial Crisis.
Strengthening Retirement:
● John McCain Believes Our Response To The
Financial Crisis Should Focus On The Homes And Savings Of Americans.
Seniors have seen the financial markets undertake a daily assault on
their life savings in recent weeks. Families are being forced to sell at
a loss to meet their bills. Public employees, unions, and every other
pension fund in America will benefit from a stronger market. The
government should take steps to meet these needs.
● John McCain Proposes That Withdrawals From
Tax-Preferred Accounts - IRAs And 401(k)s - Should Be Taxed At The
Lowest Rate - 10 Percent - In 2008 And 2009. This policy will apply
to the first $50,000 withdrawn from these accounts each year and will
affect the accounts of nearly nine million Americans over the age of 60,
permitting them to devote more of their income to retirement needs.
● John McCain Has Called To Suspend The Tax
Rules That Force Seniors To Sell Their Stocks In The Midst Of The
Most Grave Financial Crisis Of Our Lifetime. Under current law,
Americans with tax-preferred IRA and 401(k) accounts must begin to sell
off their equities when they reach age 70? - unless they continue to
work, in which case they must sell when they retire. Forcing seniors to
sell at this time guarantees less to live on during retirement and could
affect over four million seniors. John McCain believes this should be
immediately waived.
Retirement Tax Cut
● Lower Medicare Premiums: Seniors face a
growing threat from higher Medicare premiums that tax away their Social
Security and retirement savings. John McCain has proposed comprehensive,
pro-market health care and Medicare reforms to reduce health care costs
and control increases in premiums -- while delivering high-quality
health care.
Reforming Entitlement Programs For The 21st
Century
● Reform Social Security: John McCain
will fight to save the future of Social Security and believes that we
may meet our obligations to the retirees of today and the future without
raising taxes. John McCain supports supplementing the current Social
Security system with personal accounts -- but not as a substitute for
addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept.
John McCain will reach across the aisle, but if the
Democrats do not act, he will. No problem is in more need of honesty
than the looming financial challenges of entitlement programs. Americans
have the right to know the truth and John McCain will not leave office
without fixing the problems that threatens our future prosperity and
power.
● Control Medicare Growth: The growth of
spending on Medicare threatens our fiscal future. John McCain has
proposed comprehensive health care reforms that will reduce the growth
in Medicare spending, protect seniors against rising Medicare premium
payments, and preserve the advancements in medical science central to
providing quality care.
Oct.
21, 2008 Early voting is in high gear across America and some predict
more than half of the voters in this U.S. election will take advantage
of this opportunity to vote before election day. It is late for any new
issues, so, SeniorJournal.com has tried to piece together the proposals
each of the major presidential campaigns are offering for senior
citizens.
