Kamala Harris Is the Winning Choice for Seniors

Donald Trump may be old but he doesn't understand the needs of older people

NANCY J. ALTMAN for Common Dreams

The author's organization has endorsed Kamala Harris for President

Joe Biden has been the best president for seniors in over half a century. Kamala Harris will be even better.

As president, Biden has been an unwavering protector of Social Security and Medicare. In his 2024 State of the Union Address, he made it crystal clear that he would shut down any Republican attempts to create a closed-door commission to cut Social Security and Medicare. Indeed, he promised, “If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age, I will stop them.”

Harris will be as fierce a defender, and she will do more. She will expand Social Security and Medicare and ensure that all benefits will continue to be paid in full and on time for the foreseeable future by requiring billionaires to pay their fair share.

Vice President Harris, President Biden, and the Democrats have already laid out their shared policy vision for a future Harris administration. It proves that a focus on seniors’ policy is written into the DNA of a Democratic administration. The draft 2024 Democratic Party Platform states:

The right to a secure and dignified retirement is one of the bedrock principles of American life. Before Social Security, almost half of American seniors lived in poverty… Democrats changed that: In 1935, we passed Social Security; in 1965, we signed Medicare and Medicaid into law. These are more than government programs—they’re a promise that we’ve made as a country, that after a lifetime of hard work, people deserve to retire with dignity and security...

Trump and his MAGA allies are shredding that sacred trust, and saying they’ll cut Social Security to give billionaires another tax cut…Trump has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and warned, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of cutting.” As president, he tried to slash both Social Security and Medicare programs in every budget, and to gut Medicaid, which provides home care to over 7 million seniors and people with disabilities. House Republicans have vowed to cut Social Security by over $1.5 trillion, to raise the retirement age, and to transform Medicare into a voucher-like system, threatening the program…

Democrats won’t let that happen. We’ll strengthen the program and expand benefits by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. We also oppose any actions to cut Medicare benefits. We’ll look to expand traditional Medicare coverage to include dental, vision, and hearing services, which are so key to health and quality of life, by making the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share.

This is completely in line with what Harris championed when she was in the Senate. She was among the earliest cosponsors of the Social Security Expansion Act. That legislation expands Social Security by $2,400 a year, enacts a more accurate cost-of-living increase so benefits don’t erode over time, and much more. Importantly, the legislation raises enough dedicated revenue to ensure that all benefits will be paid in full and on time throughout the 21st century and beyond.

And she is equally strong in her determination to protect and expand Medicare. As Senator, she championed expanding Medicare, including the all-important, life-altering, and life-saving coverage of dental, hearing, and vision services. She will fight for that and other crucial expansions included in the Democratic platform, when she becomes president.

For years, politicians have talked about giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. She, together with President Biden, got it done. They took on Big Pharma and won.

Thanks to the Biden-Harris administration, out-of-pocket insulin costs have been capped at $35 per month, hearing aids are cheaper, and inhaler prices are lower. For the first time in history, the overall out-of-pocket cost for prescription drugs will be capped for Medicare beneficiaries.

Harris will continue that progress and more. Again, the draft 2024 Democratic Party Platform highlights:

For the first time, Medicare now also has the ability to negotiate lower drug prices... It started doing so this year, beginning with 10 commonly used medications… Democrats will push to add at least 50 drugs a year to that list, lowering prices for 500 drugs this decade. Medicare Part-D is also working to cap cost-sharing for life-saving generics at $2 a dose; Democrats will make this mandatory for all Medicare beneficiaries.

The administration is also leading the charge against Big Pharma price gouging, by requiring drugmakers that raise prices faster than inflation to pay the difference back to Medicare, which will then pass savings on to consumers. This will protect over 750,000 seniors, who could save as much as $4,500 per over-priced dose… The administration also enacted rules to finally make hearing aids available over-the-counter, saving millions of Americans up to $3,000 a pair. And Democrats will continue the administration’s work to require that any drugs developed with taxpayer dollars be available to taxpayers, including at reasonable prices. Democrats will keep working to lower drug prices by requiring more transparency from the “pharmacy benefit manager” middlemen who generally decide which drugs are covered by insurance and bought by doctors, and how much they cost…

“All these actions will benefit family budgets. And they’ll boost the federal budget, too—reducing the deficit by $160 billion over the next 10 years, as Medicare no longer has to pay Big Pharma exorbitant prices.

And there’s more. The Biden-Harris administration proposed minimum staffing standards for nursing homes, worked to boost compensation and job quality for care workers, and fought to improve and expand care options. In addition, the Biden-Harris administration has forced shady financial advisers to stop ripping off working people planning for retirement.

Not surprisingly, as a senator, Harris compiled a 100% lifetime rating from our friends at the Alliance for Retired Americans. That in a nutshell is a reminder that she will be the champion of seniors, when she becomes president. She will continue the Biden-Harris administration’s progress and expand upon it.

President Harris will also be a champion for working families, as she always has been. Republicans seek to generate warfare between generations. Only in Washington, do Republican politicians, self-proclaimed protectors of family values, believe that grandparents and grandchildren are—and should be—at war. 

Harris knows better. She understands that Americans live in families. Grandparents are not better off if their grandchildren are drowning in student debt. Grandchildren are not better off if their grandparents see their Social Security benefits cut, so that they are unable to live independently, with dignity, if they so choose.

Consistent with that recognition and support for all generations, Harris has championed paid family and medical leave, as part of a comprehensive care agenda.

In stark contrast, Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are a serious threat to our earned benefits and to our families. Although Trump claimed in the 2016 Republican presidential primary that he would be the only Republican not to cut Social Security, every one of his budgets, once he became president, proposed deep cuts.

Trump’s eagerness to cut Social Security, despite his current rhetoric, should not be a surprise. Before running for president, Trump trashed Social Security, calling it a Ponzi scheme. He supported privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age, with the condescending remark, “How many times will you really want to take that trailer to the Grand Canyon?”

And he’s no better on Medicare or prescription drug prices. In 2012, Donald Trump praised proposals by former Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan that would have destroyed Medicare by turning it into a voucher program, forcing seniors to fend for themselves in a hostile market.

Moreover Trump has attacked the Inflation Reduction Act, the historic law that for the first time gives Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, capped out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 per month, and more.

If elected again, Donald Trump will be surrounded by a Republican Party that is exceptionally eager to cut Social Security and Medicare. Earlier this year, three-fourths of all the Republicans in the House of Representatives supported a budget that would cut Social Security by $1.5 trillion, including raising the retirement age, in just the next decade.

That is the crucial choice facing voters this November. A vote for Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress is a vote to cut our earned benefits, increase our costs for prescription drugs, and throw more tax breaks at billionaires. A vote for Democrats is a vote to expand benefits, lower prescription drug prices, and require those billionaires to start paying their fair share.

NANCY J. ALTMAN is president of Social Security Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Security coalition. She has a 40-year background in the areas of Social Security and private pensions. Her latest book is "The Truth About Social Security: The Founders' Words Refute Revisionist History, Zombie Lies, and Common Misunderstandings" (2018). She is also the author of "The Battle for Social Security" (2005).