Election 2008
Virginia’s Senate Candidates
FiftyPlus posed the questions below to the four
candidates for Virginia’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Their answers are
reprinted in the order they were received.
According to census projections, one-fifth of the
U.S. population will be age 65 or older by 2030. What can be done now to
address the growing demands on Medicare and Social Security funds? What
role will the U.S. government have in helping society adapt to a
proportionately larger population of older Americans?
Mark Warner, Democrat
Meeting the unique needs of our aging population is a
significant challenge. As our elderly population increases we have to
rethink our approach to their care, particularly as it pertains to
protecting critical programs like Medicare and Social Security. From my
personal experience as a son with aging parents and my professional
experience as a governor, I know the needs of our elderly population
first hand and have implemented common sense solutions to address these
challenges.
For example, when my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s I wanted to
help my dad care for her and I didn’t know where to start. That led me
to create SeniorNavigator.com. It provides information on over 18,000
programs in Virginia that serve the aging and their caregivers. We
trained 15,000 people around the state to help seniors and their
families get the answers they needed.
As Governor, I worked with AARP to reform the tax code and ensure that
Medicaid and other senior services were preserved. As a private citizen,
I helped found the Virginia Health Care Foundation, a public-private
partnership that promotes access to primary health care and supports a
range of innovative programs, resulting in hundreds of thousands of
people gaining access to healthcare.
I believe that Social Security is the bedrock of retirement and I am
committed to protecting it. For two-thirds of the elderly, Social
Security provides the majority of their income and it’s estimated that
without Social Security, more than 50 percent of seniors would be living
in poverty. I reject jeopardizing Social Security with risky
investments, but I would consider establishing a bi-partisan commission
to make recommendations to keep Social Security secure and solvent. If
elected, I will work to ensure the long-term viability of this important
program.
We also need to improve long-term and chronic care options. We must find
more ways for seniors to live at home in a familiar setting surrounded
by their loved ones, and young people need to do their part by buying
long-term care insurance. Technology and public-private partnerships
should also play key roles in reforming long-term care. We should
utilize information technology and shift to electronic health records in
order to better track health outcomes and squeeze savings out of the
healthcare bureaucracy.
The challenges we face are significant but not overwhelming. America’s
seniors deserve to live with dignity and independence and we should do
all we can to make that happen.
Bill Redpath,
Libertarian
The most critical economic problem facing the U.S. is
our aging population and the coming entitlement spending explosion.
I support the Cato Institute’s “6.2% Solution” for Social Security, in
which individuals would be able to invest 6.2 percentage points of their
payroll tax in personal accounts, with the employer’s 6.2 percent paying
for transition costs and disability and survivors’ benefits. Workers who
choose the individual account option would receive a “recognition bond”
based on the accrued value of their lifetime-to-date benefits. Those
bonds, redeemable at the worker’s retirement, would be tradable in
secondary markets.
There are no “guaranteed benefits” under the current Social Security
system. Congress has the power to change benefits at any time, and
Social Security benefits are not inheritable. Under the “6.2% Solution”
plan, people would own their personal accounts and be able to pass them
on to heirs.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, this plan would help
restore Social Security to long-term solvency and provide workers with
higher benefits than would Social Security, although people who want to
stay in the current Social Security system could do so.
Social Security will run a deficit by 2017; Medicare is already doing
that. Medicare needs to be reformed with prepaid Medicare accounts for
workers. We need to move Medicare to a defined contribution, instead of
a defined benefit, system. The prescription drug benefit (passed in
2003) should be repealed.
Seniors should be allowed to opt out of Medicare entirely without losing
Social Security benefits, as well as on a case-by-case basis with their
doctors. We need to restore power to patients by giving Medicare
recipients vouchers—that could be supplemented with private funds—to
purchase health insurance from competing private insurers or to deposit
in a Health Savings Account to save and spend on health care in the
future.
Other than those reforms mentioned above, the U.S. government should
have a relatively small role in helping society adapt to a larger
population of older Americans. All social services that would be
required by the aging population should be provided by individuals
themselves, private entities and state & local governments. So many
people looking to the federal government to solve their problems is the
major reason that we now have a federal budget deficit of over $1
billion per day. This has got to stop—even among older Americans—or
financial ruin for this nation will result.
Jim Gilmore, Republican
Obviously we are facing a very critical situation
with Social Security and Medicare. Millions of Americans live in
constant anxiety about their health and long-term finances. They fear
the future will not be as prosperous for their children, and worry about
becoming a burden to their families. They face competing demands, from
affording health care to saving for retirement to caring for their loved
ones. I believe every American deserves access to affordable,
high-quality and reliable health care. In order to achieve this goal, I
support a broad range of health care reform measures. We need to
implement tax reforms that will help people buy health insurance and
encourage them to maintain health savings accounts. We must make it
easier for small businesses to provide affordable health care for their
employees by allowing them to form Association Health Plans. Medical
liability reforms also need to be implemented to reduce frivolous
lawsuits and bring down health care costs for everyone. And health
information technology needs to be improved to decrease medical errors
and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of medical treatments and
our overall health care system. I also believe we must look at a number
of options for keeping Social Security and Medicare solvent without
raising taxes or reducing or cutting benefits for current recipients.
One of the proposals that I believe might be worth examining is
Congressman Frank Wolf’s proposal for the establishment of a national
bipartisan commission to address the future of Social Security and
Medicare, examine all of the available options and recommend the best
way to protect these vital programs.
Additionally, like Sen. John McCain, I support lowering Medicare
premiums. Seniors face a growing threat from higher Medicare premiums
that diminish their Social Security and retirement savings. We have a
moral responsibility to older Americans and to future generations to
address this difficult problem, and if elected to the U.S. Senate, I
will work tirelessly to help keep Medicare and Social Security stable
and solvent for current and future generations.
Gail Parker, Independent Green
The Parker campaign did not respond.
Learn about Virginia’s
candidates for local and state offices. Call the Virginia State Board of
Elections at (800) 552-9745 or (804) 864-8901 or see
www.sbe.virginia.gov
