Obama addresses pressing boomer issues

By Staff Writer

Commentary October 28, 2008 at 08:00 PM

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Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama sat down with AARP's Prime Time Radio yesterday to discuss those issues facing boomers.

On health care:

"It's very important that we go after the rising costs of health care and prescription drugs. It's a huge outlay for [older Americans].

"Health care is the biggest drag on our economy. We're consistently seeing increases of six, eight, ten percent in health care inflation. No one's income and wages go up that fast. The fact is that unless we get a handle on health care inflation then there's no way we're going to be able to handle the increase burden of Medicare especially as the baby boomers begin to retire."

On Social Security:

"Social Security, structurally, is much more sound that Medicare is. If we do nothing with Social Security then the system won't go bankrupt or collapse. What will happen though is that you'll have a hidden reduction of benefits over time…We're going to have to make an adjustment. The way I think we should make that adjustment is by raising the cap on the payroll tax …The sooner we act on that the better we're going to be."

On sacrifice:

"Higher income Americans like myself who are making more than a quarter million dollars…can afford to go back to the Clinton tax rates…Energy is another example where we're really going to have to take the steps to be more energy efficient as a nation…each of us individuals are going to have to be more mindful of how we use energy."

To listen to the full interview visit www.aarp.org or www.shaarpsession.org, AARP's blog.

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