The War on Old Folks

[xchrom]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/13351/the_war_on_old_folks/


Old folks in Chicago protest cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in Chicago on Nov. 7, 2011.

’m sitting here feeling my bile rise as I eye the cover of the publication I most love to hate, AARP The Magazine. This one features Diane Keaton and promises to explain “How she stays forever young.” The featured tip? “Take risks – do things you can’t imagine!” Month in and month out, this rag features well-preserved, wealthy, beaming celebrities who suggest that aging can be defied, and also that it’s just one big blast.

I’d like to see a somewhat different cover. This one would feature a sick, homeless grandma taking risks and doing all the things Keaton can’t imagine. Like living without Medicare. Or Social Security. Or affordable housing. Because if the Republicans get their way, more and more retirees are going to be increasingly impoverished. Sarah Palin and others may have gone ballistic over alleged “death panels,” but the real ghouls facing older people are the right-wingers in Congress, and in all too many state houses and legislatures.

While the Republican War on Women has gained national attention, there has been less outrage over the Republican War on Older Americans. But the battles are everywhere. State after state is going after pension funds. Here in Michigan, for example, one of the first things Republican Gov. Rick Snyder did was to impose new and higher taxes on retirement income and public pensions. Making matters worse, our state’s long recession forced many people in their 50s to take early retirement as employers downsized. When you retire early, your benefits are lower than if you wait until you’re 65. So now, a larger percentage of smaller retirement eggs will be subject to income tax. Why? To make up for cuts in the state’s business taxes.

Beyond Michigan, the AFL-CIO finds that older workers who lose their jobs have the highest rate of long-term unemployment, which in turn means significantly reduced retirement income. Plus, they often have to tap into what savings they have to get by.

[phantom power]

1. War on Women, Elderly, LGBT, Middle Class, Poor: the 99%

[nineteen50]

7. War on the public sector

[snappyturtle]

2. THis is one subject that Rachel Maddow pisses me off on.

She does one of those MSNBC ads where she says thanks to Social Security
us older folks are really doing OK! I beg to differ but................

[RebelOne]

4. I beg to differ also.

I am collecting social security, but I am not doing OK. If it wasn't for some savings that I have, I would not be able to make it.

[Dont call me Shirley]

14. Me either!

[taught_me_patience]

3. Old folks went strong for Republicans in 2010

So they get what they voted for. Were they expecting something different?

[jehop61]

13. Interesting....

Since SOME older people voted republican, you don't really care if ALL older people have financial difficulties. Hey, lets put us all out on the ole ice flow, we're getting in the way.

[The Wizard]

5. Repubes just hate Americans (NT)

[riverwalker]

6. it's outrageous

how we treat the elderly, the very people who built this country. These are OUR citizens, our veterans. Losing homes, and savings wiped out if they need nursing home care is barbaric. In Norway, for example, if they need nursing home care, they get it. No Medicaid hoops to jump through, no "spending down" your life savings, no liens on the family farm, they just get it, and 85% of their pension (what we call Social Security) pays for it.
We are penalizing our citizens for the crime of becoming old.

[Aerows]

11. The elderly are our backbone

And this bs Mormon shit is going to get buried in national polls when the elderly see what it means for them. There is nothing benevolent about the LDS - Romney's church. It's all about exploitation.

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. The nerve of them to continue breathing after we can no longer

squeeze any value from their existence. Talk about inconsiderate.
K&R

[patrice]

8. I wonder how many of us are also helping children, in IT especially, with ballooning student loans.

[Aerows]

9. You got a Mormon that wants to make the country a Mormon theocracy

and you think old folks of that era are concerned about anything?

Shit, they have been canning vegetables for years, and no matter what happens, won't be taken down.

I think you really don't understand the Deep South.

[patrice]

12. And I think they don't really understand the various kinds of values lost to Social Darwinism, which

losses they will not discover until it's too late.

That's what happens when you don't know that you don't know what you don't know.

[patrice]

10. And then there's the latest "life-line": Reverse Mortgages, which, though you don't lose title, CAN

eat up what little wealth some of us have left to will to our children and CAN even result in them holding title to property that's upside-down in the market, after we pass on.