Until recently, most proponents of cutting Social Security benefits weren’t talking about current beneficiaries, but they are a target today: The so-called chained consumer price indexwould lower the annual cost-of-living adjustment, cutting the benefits of seniors in the program by thousands of dollars over their lifetimes. This is predicated on the idea that consumers can simply substitute lower-cost items for higher-priced goods. Unfortunately, many seniors are not in a position to make such a switch.
The editorial said, “Social Security cannot pay all promised benefits, and a debt discussion is a useful place to make reasonable tradeoffs.” But the Social Security trust funds can pay all promised benefits until 2036.
In AARP’s view, a debt discussion is precisely the wrong place to consider the modest changes needed to strengthen the program and protect current and future beneficiaries. This discussion should unfold thoughtfully in the context of retirement security, not as a desperate attempt to beat the clock in front of the supercommittee.
Nancy LeaMond, Washington
The writer is executive vice president of AARP.
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●AARP is not speaking for all of its members and is not speaking for its members’ best interests. I have been a member of AARP for more than 20 years, and I have written in vain to its president asking AARP to offer reasonable proposals to cut costs and increase revenue for Social Security and Medicare.
It is essential to the welfare of all Americans, including retirees such as me, that our leaders come together to rescue our nation’s fiscal health. Only those who are truly ignorant — or are paid to do so — preach that the solution is only program cuts or only revenue increases. AARP’s posture of “no compromise” encourages all stakeholders to be similarly adamant and thus frustrates essential progress.
John Hansman, Rockville
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●I find the use of the adjective “thuggish” to describe AARP’s TV ad warning against cutting Medicare and Social Security benefits to be appalling — and insulting to all seniors, whether they are members of AARP or not. This political ad is appropriate, timely and, I believe, effective. There is nothing “thuggish” about it.
Seniors have earned their benefits and have paid for them during a lifetime of work. To be sure, Social Security and Medicare need addressing. Social Security can be easily fixed for the next 75 years, however, by lifting the cap on income subject to payroll taxes. Medicare will require more effort and, most likely, sacrifice on the part of seniors. But neither program belongs on the table of the congressional supercommittee.
Charles Bickel, Poulsbo, Wash.
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●AARP is as pernicious a force from the left as Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, is from the right. If we do not get our long-term fiscal health in order, through a responsible combination of tax increases, spending cuts and gradual changes in the trajectory of entitlement costs, our grandchildren will revile us, and rightly so.
I hope other responsible seniors will join me in urging their elected representatives to show some much-needed political courage and leadership.
Richard Juhnke, Arlington
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