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Representatives from AARP Wisconsin were in Crandon recently to discuss political issues facing voters ages 50 and over. At their gathering, they provided the results of a recent survey of the presidential candidates which discussed issues many AARP members across Wisconsin view as important. Both Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama responded on a variety of subjects. Their answers are written below word for word as they were written in the survey.

Q. What will be your top domestic issue priorities if elected? How will you work to break the gridlock to get things done on these issues?

McCain (R): Among my highest national priorities would be reforming our nation’s failing institutions and assuring American prosperity. Essential to this agenda is supporting the housing market, reforming our health care system, addressing needed reform to our entitlement programs and enacting needed reforms to ensure we can fund our national priorities, while offering a pro-growth tax code that would promote investment and spur economic growth and job creation. For too long, Washington has been consumed by a hyper-partisanship that treats every challenge facing us as an opportunity to disparage each other’s motives and fight about the next election. My career is replete with examples of the type of bipartisan problem solving that we need to address these great challenges and secure our nation’s prosperity.

Obama (D): My top domestic priorities will be reforming our health care system to ensure all Americans have affordable quality health coverage; enacting a bold climate change and energy independence agenda that creates five million new green jobs; and ensuring the long-term growth of our economy. I will build consensus for my proposals that reflect my campaign to engage directly with the American people and reject the old politics of Washington which has cared more about special interests than the national interest. As a result of that failed politics, more Americans lack health insurance than any other period in history, are paying record gas prices and have increasing economic insecurity while corporations are raking in record profits. My presidency will put an end to that failed system.

Q. Will you support or oppose a balanced Social Security plan to continue the program’s guaranteed benefits for future generations? Will you support or oppose diverting Social Security payroll taxes to fund individual retirement accounts?

McCain: The only way we can ensure the benefits for future generations is to put Social Security on a sound financial footing. As president, I will work with Congress on a bipartisan basis to make the hard choices to assure the solvency of Social Security and to protect the retirement security of the American worker.

Obama: I am committed to ensuring Social Security is solvent and viable for the American people. I will be honest with the American people about Social Security and the ways we can address the long-term shortfall. I will protect Social Security benefits for current and future beneficiaries, oppose efforts to raise the retirement age and stand firmly against privatization. I believe that the first place to look for ways to strengthen Social Security is the payroll tax, which only applies to the first $102,000 a worker makes. I have consistently said that we should examine including a “donut hole” to ensure we do not increase the burdens on middle class Americans. I will work with Congress and the American people to strengthen Social Security.

Q. What options do you support to make saving for retirement easier for American families? Do you support or oppose guaranteeing employees’ access to automatic payroll deductions in the workplace to fund an IRA? Do you support or oppose creating retirement accounts in addition to Social Security?

McCain: Automatic payroll deductions for employee IRA’s has proven to be an effective approach to encouraging and helping workers save for retirement, and I support them. I know that for many seniors, dividend and capital gains income is critical to a comfortable retirement, which is why I strongly support keeping capital gains and dividend taxes low. I also believe that within a broader context of a comprehensive, bipartisan reform, personal accounts can play a role in improving the retirement security for Americans, particularly young Americans; but these accounts should not be viewed as a standalone mechanism for meeting promised benefits.

Obama: I will strengthen the retirement security of American workers. Currently, 75 million working Americans lack employer-based retirement plans. My retirement security plan will automatically enroll workers in a workplace pension 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. I will also expand the existing Savers Credit to match 50 percent of the first $1,000 of savings for families that earn under $75,000, and I will make the tax credit refundable.

Q. What policies would you support to make health care and health insurance more affordable and accessible for everyone? What policies would you support to make Medicare more affordable?

McCain: We need to get rising costs under control; and give individuals more choices. Health care choices are amongst the most personal of decisions, and should not be subject to the dictates of Washington. I propose giving individuals a tax credit to help with the purchase of health insurance, allowing Americans to choose the insurance provider that suits them best, including their existing employer provided health plan. Americans need portable insurance that is there if they retire early, lose a job, or take time off to raise the kids. We must also move away from fee-for-service toward coordinated care that focuses on prevention and paying for quality outcomes. My reforms will also lower Medicare premiums that are increasingly eating into Social Security checks.

Obama: I want to stop talking about the outrage of 47 million uninsured Americans and start actually doing something about it. To do so, we need a president who can bring Democrats and Republicans together, stand up to the drug and insurance industry lobbyists and create a transparent process so that the American people can participate in the debate. That’s how I expanded health care in Illinois, and that’s how I’ll do it as President. I am committed to signing a universal health care plan into law by the end of my first term in office. My plan will lower costs $2,500 per year for the typical American family and enable all Americans to buy affordable, quality and portable health insurance coverage.

Q. How would you shift long-term care services and financing so that people can afford to stay in their homes and communities as long as appropriate?

McCain: I am confident in the pioneering approaches for delivering care to people in a home setting, and would look to them first as models for how we need to approach this issue. There have been a variety of promising state-based experiments such as Cash and Counseling or The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). Through these programs, seniors are given a monthly assistance which they can use to hire workers and purchase care-related services and goods. They can get help managing their care by designating representatives, such as relatives or friends, to help make decisions. It also offers counseling and bookkeeping services to assist consumers.

Obama: The long-term care system is heavily biased toward institutional care – even though most people would rather remain at home – and the quality of care is often poor. Moreover, nursing home and home care are very expensive, and Medicare coverage for both is limited, making catastrophic expenses routine. As president, I will work to give seniors choices about their care, consistent with their needs and not biased towards institutional care. I will work to reform the financing of long-term care to protect seniors and families from impoverishment or debt. I will work to improve the quality of elder care, including by giving our long-term care and geriatric workforce the respect and support they deserve and training more nurses and health care workers in geriatrics.

*AARP is a non-partisan organization.

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