By Alex Moore
With the Presidency, the House of Representatives, and one-third of the Senate at stake, the 2024 election promises to have a deep impact on government policies that affect seniors like Social Security, healthcare, and inflation.
TSCL is a nonpartisan organization, so we advocate seniors’ rights to both major political parties. This year, we have made detailed recommendations that encourage our politicians to:
- Prevent Social Security from going insolvent in 2033 and having to cut benefits. We recommend accomplishing this by increasing the wage cap on Social Security payroll taxes, applying Social Security tax to net investment income, and adjusting the limit before retirees begin paying taxes on their Social Security
- Address flaws in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) models the government uses to measure inflation and determine Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs). We believe that the CPI, which determines the value of Social Security results in a decrease in quality of life for American citizens.
- Calculate COLAs using the CPI for the Elderly (CPI-E) instead of the CPI for Urban Wage Earners (CPI-W). The CPI-E better reflects seniors’ expenses and would lead to higher COLAs if used as the principal measure of inflation for seniors
- Reduce the financial drain of illegal immigration on government resources and services so the government can redirect critical funds to support retirees.
Since both parties have published their official platforms, this article will examine where Democrats and Republicans have (and have not) made plans to implement our recommendations. It will also cover where each party stands on major issues like healthcare, Social Security, and inflation in general.
Social Security:
Both parties claim they will not enact any budgets that reduce Social Security’s benefits for retirees. The Republican platform says that the party “would not cut one penny” from the program if they take power, while Democrats describe their commitment to protect Social Security as “ironclad.”
However, neither party has pledged to enact TSCL’s recommendations to shore up Social Security’s finances and prevent the program from becoming insolvent and cutting benefits in 2033.
While Democrats state that they will improve Social Security’s funding by “asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share,” their platform does not formally commit to raising the income ceiling on Social Security payroll taxes, applying Social Security taxes to net investment income, or adjusting the limit before retirees begin paying taxes on their benefits.
The Republican platform also fails to make these pledges. It states that “Republicans will restore economic stability to ensure the long-term stability of Social Security,” primarily through promoting industry, energy production, and geopolitical stability, but does not point to any specific tax increases to strengthen the program’s revenue.
Additionally, neither party outlines a plan to address unfair COLAs. Neither platform mentions Social Security’s COLAs, restoring a CPI methodology that doesn’t factor in a reduced quality of life, or changing COLA calculations from the CPI-W to the CPI-E.
Medicare and Other Healthcare Issues:
Both party platforms offer more substantial policies for Medicare than Social Security. First, both say they will not make any cuts to the program. The Republican platform vows to “strengthen Medicare for future generations,” while the Democratic platform describes Medicare as “a promise that we’ve made as a country.”
The Republican platform, due to the document’s shorter overall length, is much lighter on specific policies than the Democratic one, but they do make a strong commitment to reducing illegal immigration’s burden on the program and government resources in general. If they take control of Congress, they plan to secure the border by using advanced technology, imposing a fentanyl blockade, strengthening enforcement of immigration laws, mass deporting illegal immigrants, and implementing stricter vetting for people entering the country. Additionally, although they do not specify Medicare specifically, they say they will shift resources back to at-home senior care so more seniors can age in place, reduce economic disincentives for care workers, and support family caregivers through tax credits.
The Democratic platform provides more detail on the party’s plans to improve Medicare. First, the party plans to build upon Medicare’s new ability to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, created by 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act. They would expand the number of drugs eligible for negotiation by 50 each year, up from 10 in 2024, during each year of their administration.
The Democrats propose further mitigating Medicare’s costs for seniors by imposing steep penalties for pharmaceutical companies that increase the prices of their drugs faster than inflation and forcing them to rebate the difference to the program. They would maintain the $2,000- per-year cap on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, enforce a $2 maximum cost for life-saving generic drugs for beneficiaries, and reduce surprise medical billing and junk fees paid by the program.
Like its Republican counterpart, the Democratic platform would seek to reduce illegal immigration’s burden on government resources, and in turn, Medicare and Social Security. They propose increasing the number of border patrol agents, immigration judges, and asylum officers. They would enshrine the President’s authority to close the Mexican border. However, they would also create new avenues for long-term illegal immigrants to become citizens, which they claim would increase the country’s tax revenue.
Also like Republicans, Democrats have pledged to address inefficiencies in the home healthcare market for seniors. Specifically, they would address shortages of home health workers by passing legislation that improves their pay by giving them a bigger share of Medicaid home care payments and establishing employee benefit standards throughout the industry. They would also institute paid leave for people who leave the workforce to care for aging parents.
Inflation:
While they have wildly different views on how to tackle inflation, both parties see it as a top issue in the 2024 election. One major tenet they share for addressing inflation is increasing American energy production. The Republican platform aims to restore the U.S.’s status as “the top producer of oil and natural gas in the world,” plus expand nuclear energy, by reducing regulations. Democrats, meanwhile, would focus their efforts on green energy. They would invest in solar energy, wind energy, and battery storage. They would also incentivize the rise of electric vehicles and more efficient home appliances, plus promote clean energy production on public lands.
The parties’ approaches to addressing inflation in other parts of the economy differ, too. Republicans advocate for greater protection for American companies and workers against unfair global competition. They would accomplish this by implementing bilateral trade deals instead of multilateral ones, reducing wasteful government spending, cutting regulations, and strengthening the military to promote global peace and economic stability.
Democrats would fight non-energy inflation by addressing corporate malpractice. They would focus on issues such as eliminating junk fees from financial and healthcare service providers, boosting supply chains for critical commodities and technologies, and cracking down on price gouging by companies who have seen their costs reduced as inflation cools but not lowered their prices in kind. They would promote corporate competition by banning non-compete agreements that prevent workers from switching between companies and promoting policies to reduce shipping costs for American goods.
Closing Thoughts:
We hope you have found this article informative. This is not an editorial, so TSCL is not trying to sway your vote one way or another. We only hope that you will use this information to help make voting decisions that support seniors’ best interests and ask the candidates running for your district’s seats in the House of Representatives or the Senate hard questions. If you need help crafting additional questions, check out the article on town hall meetings and debates later in this issue.
