Obama's War on Seniors

For all the Democrat rancor about the War on Women,  President Obama and his administration have carried out their own hostile campaign against seniors without so much as a peep from Republicans.  Their silence makes them complicit in the undermining of the future health and welfare of seniors.

With the backing of his party, Obama and his policy wonks have deliberately punished seniors by shaving their health care benefits, savaging their savings and slicing their retirement benefits. Ironically, Democrats and their titular leader claim it is Republicans who want to throw granny off the cliff.

But the facts belie their rhetoric.  Since Obama was elevated to the White House, his party and his administration have waged a cruel war on those 65-years and older.  Consider how the president's policies, implemented by his minions, have harmed seniors:

The Federal Reserve Board has kept interest rates near zero for most of the Obama presidency. Risk-adverse seniors have traditionally invested their retirement funds in savings accounts, certificates of deposit and U.S. Treasury securities.  However, the earnings from these investments have failed to even keep up with low inflation rates.  Seniors' nest eggs have been hammered by the Fed's policy, advocated by Obama.  There had have been other consequences as well.  Low interest rates have increased the cost of long-term care insurance and reduced guaranteed payments on even the safest annuities.

The Obama economic recovery has forced more seniors to keep working. The number of Americans 65 and older in the workforce has risen every year under Obama.  For first time since the Labor Department began keeping statistics in 1981, one in nine men and one in 20 women over the age of 75 are toiling in the workforce.  Many seniors have no choice but to continue to work.  A study by the Washington, D.C.-based Employee Benefit Research Institute blamed the increase in senior workers on the loss of retirement savings, significant increases in Medicare premiums and adverse changes in Social Security benefits.

Obamacare will cut billions of dollars from Medicare over the next decade.  President Obama famously claimed that his signature health care reform "won't touch guaranteed Medicare benefits.  Not by a single dime."  This is a colossal lie.  Obamacare will gut $716 billion from Medicare over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  Obama has turned Medicare into a cash cow to fund the entitlements guaranteed under the new health care law. Medicare trustees have estimated that the lower Medicare payment rates will force cutbacks in benefits to seniors as hospitals, nursing facilities and home health care agencies are obligated to accept less money for services.

Social Security cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) have been practically non-existent under Obama.   After years of rising COLA increases, the Social Security administration has put the brakes on hikes.  In both 2009 and 2010, seniors received not one penny of increase even as inflation ticked up.  Since 2011, the increases have totaled a meager 6.8 percent.  By comparison, spending on federal means-tested welfare programs has soared 32 percent since Obama took office, reports the Senate Budget Committee.  Funding for food stamp programs has skyrocketed 65 percent under Obama.

In some ways seniors have no one to blame but themselves for the shabby treatment.  For decades, Democrats have hoodwinked seniors into believing Republicans wanted to take away their benefits.  In response, too many older Americans sheepishly voted for Democrats.

Seniors have the power to shift the political winds.  The Census Bureau estimates that the number of people aged 65 and older will double by 2050.  There were 43 million people 65+ in 2012.  By 2050, the number will eclipse 84 million.  One in five Americans will be seniors.

Those statistics should compel Washington to take notice.  But only if seniors flex their political muscle and let themselves be heard in the halls of Congress, at the ballot box and in the media.  The future belongs to seniors, but only if they arise from their political slumber.