Tag: senior citizens

Donald Trump’s problems with senior voters started long before the coronavirus

Washington Post logoBiden’s appeal to seniors has flattened

In recent weeks, reporters and political analysts have centered on the challenge that President Trump currently faces with one particular group of voters: seniors. According to the 2016 National Exit Polls, those voters had favored Trump over Hillary Clinton by a 52-45 margin. But now a number of polls (although not every one) show Trump losing this group to Joe Biden, or at least doing worse than in 2016.

The most common explanation is the coronavirus. As one recent New York Times article argued, “The coronavirus crisis and the administration’s halting response to it have cost President Trump support from one of his most crucial constituencies: America’s seniors.” Polls do show seniors increasingly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the virus.

But Trump’s apparent problems with seniors started well before the coronavirus outbreak. Surveys show Biden has been beating Trump among seniors for months. Here’s how we know. Continue reading.

As MN CD 3 Race Heats Up, Seniors Sponsor Candidate Forum

BLOOMINGTON — Senior citizens, retirees and others met at the Minnesota Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall last Friday to hold a candidate forum in the 3rd congressional district hosted by the Minneapolis Regional Retiree Council(link is external).

The focus of the form was on debt and its debilitating impacts.

“My niece recently completed graduate school at the University of Minnesota [and] she told my brother that she expects she will never own a home because of the debt she incurred while going through school. Debt is a rising tide threatening to drown the American dream,” said Leif Grina, President of the Minneapolis Retirees Council.

View the complete October 23 article by Filberto Nolasco Gomez on the Workday Minnesota website here.

GOP Less Generous than Obamacare for Older Americans

The following article by Stephen Ohlemacher was posted on the Associated Press website March 10, 2017:

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) listens to remarks next to a “Make America Sick Again” sign, during a news conference after meeting with President Barack Obama in the U.S. Capitol, January 4, 2017, in Washington, DC. Republicans have begun to move to repeal Obamacare as one of their priorities in the 115th Congress. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans hate “Obamacare,” so House GOP leaders freak out whenever their health care bill is compared to President Barack Obama’s law. But one reason some conservatives are branding the bill “Obamacare Lite” comes down to the tax credits to help consumers buy insurance.

Both tax credits target people who don’t get health insurance from their employer or from the government. They are both available to people even if they don’t make enough money to owe any federal income tax. And they are both entitlement programs — if you meet the criteria, you are entitled to the benefit.

But there are significant differences in the size and reach of the tax credits.

The Obamacare tax credits are designed to limit the share of income that people have to spend on health insurance. Continue reading “GOP Less Generous than Obamacare for Older Americans”

Rising Earnings Inequality Is Taking a Mounting Toll on Social Security

The following article by Rachel West and Rebecca Vallas was posted on the Center for American Progress website February 16, 2017:

For more than 80 years, the Social Security system has been at the heart of economic security for millions of American workers and their families. Of the nearly 60 million Americans who receive Social Security today, roughly 3 in 5 seniors and 8 in 10 disabled workers rely on the program’s modest benefits for most of their family income. And with the United States facing an impending retirement crisis at the same time that most American workers have seen their wages stagnate and job stability decline, Social Security will become even more vital for families in the coming years. Continue reading “Rising Earnings Inequality Is Taking a Mounting Toll on Social Security”