Benefit issues crucial to race

Benefit issues crucial to race

Helen Boyce is worried.

The 50-year-old just retired from the Savannah River Site in Aiken because she suffers from multiple sclerosis — which means she will come to rely more on many prescription drugs.

But she has little faith in the government assistance programs — Social Security and, particularly, Medicare — that help people like her.

So when U.S. Senate candidates Jim DeMint and Inez Tenenbaum talk about their plans for the programs, Boyce listens.

“It’s going to be me in a short while,” she says.

Tenenbaum and DeMint have very different ideas about Social Security and Medicare. But they both seek the same Holy Grail of politics — an issue that can get people to the polls.

With voters like Boyce, they appeal to a group that has paid into the system for decades, that is about to reap the benefits and that votes reliably.

“These issues tend to weigh on the minds of elderly voters or people who are about to enter into the (Social Security) system,” says USC political scientist Blease Graham. “It may be the kind of thing that motivates voters.”

YOUNGER GENERATION

Most estimates suggest the voters who ought to be worried about Social Security are not today’s retirees but are the younger generations.

According to the federal government’s Social Security Web site, by the time today’s 35-year-olds reach age 73, their benefits will be reduced by almost one-third and could continue to be reduced every year thereafter.

That angers Julius Copeland Jr., a 44-year-old photographer and photo lab manager from Columbia.

“Any time I’m giving something and somebody’s taking it away, I’m disappointed,” he says.

But many other young voters don’t share his emotion. Perhaps because raising a family, going to school and paying for immediate needs sap most of their attention, Graham says.

Retirement is confusing and seems too far in the future to worry about.

“It’s hard to sit here at age 25 and speculate what’s going to happen at age 65,” he says.

Larry Crutchlow, 25, a Marine and a USC junior, says he is saving by investing in mutual funds and his wife’s 401(k). But he knows he’s not prepared.

Crutchlow, who lives in a house bigger than his parents ever had at his age, isn’t optimistic that elected officials can make younger voters worry about retirement or Social Security.

“I think the spending ethic is live for the now, then worry later,” he says. “The moral values are different than they were. People want what they want when they want it.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

Medicare is a different story. Today’s seniors have a much more immediate reason for concern.

Amid a multitude of problems with the program, the biggest seems to be that prescription drugs are a growing part of medical care for seniors. Medicare can’t cover the rising costs.

Since the 2000 presidential race — when the tales of grandparents choosing between food and expensive medicine filled newspapers and TV — Congress has created a trial program to cover the cost of some drugs for seniors on Medicare.

Boyce, who leans Democratic, only has contempt for the program.

“It does nothing good for people who are supposed to benefit,” she says. “It just looks like a good way for the drug companies to have your business.”

Mary Ann Loucks, a Republican who lives in McCormick County’s sprawling “active adult” community, Savannah Lakes Village, disagrees.

She recently attended a meeting for seniors with U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, R-S.C., at which the Westminster congressman promised to dispatch a representative to the home of any constituent unable to figure out the new benefit.

“If he’s offering this much help, and you still can’t use it, you’re not interested in learning,” says Loucks, a retired nurse.

IMPORTING DRUGS

DeMint and Tenenbaum have offered some solutions for the rising costs of drugs and Social Security.

Each favors allowing Americans to import cheaper drugs from other countries. Faced with competition, the theory goes, drug companies would lower costs.

Many voters like that idea.

“We certainly don’t need to protect drug companies from competition,” says Democrat Jerry Goldman, 59, a former insurance and pension plan salesman who lives in Savannah Lakes Village.

But the candidates have very different plans for Social Security. DeMint favors allowing workers to invest part of their Social Security taxes in the stock market.

Tenenbaum vigorously opposes “privatizing” Social Security. Because Social Security is a “pay as you go” system, today’s workers pay for today’s retirees. Allowing some to take money out could rob benefits from seniors who depend on the money.

On this issue, voters often split along party lines.

Loucks’ husband, Dean, 69, wants a candidate who can imagine new ways to approach problems.

“That’s what’s going to save our system — it’s innovation,” says Dean Loucks, a retired insurance sales manager.

But Doris Sills, 72, a retired teacher from Florence, wonders whether an investment program would work for those who need it most.

“There are some people out there who have such low-paying jobs,” she says, “if they have the opportunity to take some money and put it (in investments) ... they’re going to spend it.”

PROMOTING SAVINGS

Both DeMint and Tenenbaum favor encouraging people to save more for retirement and medical needs as one way to help preserve Social Security and Medicare.

Meeting at the new Florence County Library, Sills and a group of Florence County League of Women Voters members at or approaching retirement age wonder what became of the instinct to save that they grew up with.

They worry today’s young adults spend their money on cars and houses and not retirement and health insurance — leaving them potentially dependent on a government benefit that might not exist by the time they need it.

“What we see is opulent spending, to the casual nosy old maid — the trips, the cars, the boat,” says Dolores Miller, 72, a retired Francis Marion University administrator.

“How do you make a plan when your life is like that?” asks Sara Simons, 77, a retired teacher.

But Leo Johnson, 59, of St. Andrews, doesn’t share their concern. He will retire from his job as a security officer in two years.

He knows the benefits he will take advantage of won’t look like the ones his 9-month-old granddaughter will get. But he’s convinced everything will work out.

“This is America,” he says. “We complain about everything, but when we have to, we roll up our sleeves and find a solution.”

Reach Talhelm at (803) 771-8339 or jtalhelm@thestate.com.