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Candidates Speak Out On Senior Issues
Carol Moseley Braun was born in Chicago on August 16, 1947. Her father, a law enforcement officer, was a consummate renaissance man, a musician who mastered seven instruments and spoke several languages. Her mother was a medical technician. Together they encouraged their children to pursue excellence, embrace opportunity and follow their dreams. Her life reflects this philosophy. Ms. Moseley Braun has served her country as a United States Senator (1992-98), U.S. Ambassador (1999-2001), as well as County Executive Officer, State Representative, and Assistant United States Attorney. Since her return in 2001 from her ambassadorial posting to New Zealand, she has taught law and political science at Morris Brown College and DePaul University, along with a business law practice and business consultancy in Chicago. The hallmark of her public service has been dedication to the harmony of the community. She is an advocate of diversity and has consistently worked to build an inclusive society. Her extensive and constructive legislative record reflects this commitment to social justice and good government. Ms. Moseley Braun is a graduate of the Chicago Public Schools. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1968, and her law degree in 1972 from the University of Chicago. She joined the United States Attorney's office in Chicago in 1973. As an Assistant United States Attorney, she worked primarily in the civil and appellate law areas and tried cases of national importance. Her work in housing, health policy, and environmental law won her the Attorney General's Special Achievement award. She subsequently received over 300 awards for achievements in the public interest. She left the US Attorney's office in 1977 to start a family. Her son, Matthew, is a computer engineer. As a homemaker, Ms. Moseley Braun volunteered her services on behalf of local environmental issues. Her energy and commitment inspired neighbors to encourage her to run for public office. In 1978, she was elected to the Illinois state legislature, the General Assembly. As a State Representative, she became recognized as a champion for education, governmental reform, and civil rights. As early as 1984, she proposed a moratorium on the application in Illinois of the death penalty. And in what became a landmark reapportionment case, Crosby vs. State Board of Elections, she successfully sued her own party and the state of Illinois on behalf of African American and Hispanic citizens. Soon thereafter, Ms. Moseley Braun was named Assistant Majority Leader; when she left the legislature in 1987, her colleagues recognized her in a resolution as "the conscience of the House." She served one term as Recorder of Deeds for Cook County, which includes Chicago, before running for the United States Senate. She won that race in November 1992, marking yet another historic first: first female senator from Illinois, first female African-American senator, first African-American Democratic senator. In the Senate, Carol Moseley Braun built an exemplary legislative record, serving among others on the Finance, Banking and Judiciary Committees. Among the highlights of her wide-ranging legislative work, she spearheaded debate on repairing the nation's crumbling schools sponsored the brownfields tax law that provided essential impetus and support for environmental remediation helped to craft a tax policy that assisted widows to obtain pension benefits, restored the interest deduction on college loans, encouraged retirement savings, and expanded opportunities for the poor to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit supported laws to enact a Balanced Budget Amendment even when many Democrats were not pleased with it pushed through farm legislation, transportation support, and economic security initiatives of value to the people of Illinois and to the nation sponsored the creation of the Sacagawea dollar coin, honoring the contributions of women of color to this nation sponsored the authorization the Park Service's historic preservation of the Underground Railroad, preserving an essential part of our nation's legacy of progress on race and civil rights was a consistent and strong voice for equal opportunity, the prevention of discrimination on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation, reproductive freedom, and social and economic justice. In 1998, after Carol Moseley Braun was narrowly defeated in her race for re-election, President Clinton named her special consultant to the Department of Education on school construction - one of her longtime special concerns. She was then nominated to be U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand, and confirmed by a vote of the full Senate, 98-2. As United States Ambassador, her portfolio included New Zealand, Samoa, the Cook Islands and even Antarctica. She is fond of calling this time in her public service "Ambassador to Paradise." In New Zealand, she was made an honorary member of the Te Atiawa Maori people. When her ambassadorial assignment ended, Ms. Moseley Braun returned to Alabama to rehabilitate and rescue her family farm. During that time, she started her business consultancy and began to teach political science. Carol Moseley Braun returns today to the national forum animated by a sense of duty to the nation and a patriotic desire to serve.
Braun Responses to Survey HEALTH / Medicaid What do you think should be done to ensure the sustainability of the Medicaid program and to improve it? The United States is at once home to the most advanced medical research and tre atment facilities and an estimated 46 million people without health insurance. This dichotomy makes itself known at every level of health care, from community health centers to genetic research conducted at the National Institutes of Health for the prevention of disease. Underlying the disparities in the healthcare system is its funding. Our system of health care is a crazy patchwork of employer sponsored insurance, government funded Medicaid for the poor and government funded Medicare for the elderly, and emergency rooms and community health clinics for the uninsured. Our system of providing for health care insurance through employer based plans is inherently unfair- most obviously, but not exclusively, to uninsured Americans. It is also unfair to American manufacturers and importers who must factor in the cost of providing health care, while their competitors overseas rely on their government to pick up the tab. It is unfair to hospitals and doctors, whose professional judgment is constantly subject to review by the clerical personnel of large health insurance conglomerates. It is unfair to middle-income taxpayers, who are asked to fund about 60% of the costs of health in this country through mostly regressive taxes. Ultimately, it is not health care that needs to be reformed; we have the best health care in the world. We know as a nation how to provide for health care. What we don’t have is a rational system for paying for it. The single-payer National Health Insurance program I propose addresses the problems in the health care industry by simplifying the multiple layers of public and private health insurers into one system. A National Health Insurance system provides universal coverage to all citizens, and covers all necessary and reasonable medical costs during a person’s lifetime. The National Health Insurance program more rationally and equitably distributes costs for health care. By breaking the link between employment and health insurance coverage, my plan lifts from low- and middle-income Americans the disproportionate burden they carry for paying for health care, relative to their income. Companies including health insurance as a portion of compensation will be required to offer the value of the benefit in the form of additional compensation in order to offset the tax surcharge. This will help companies become more competitive internationally, while providing to Americans that which should be a basic human service: health care. A National Health Insurance policy will help to reorient health care spending in the United States. Currently, the estimated 46 million Americans without health care coverage seek medical care only when it is direly necessary, in emergency rooms, where care is the most expensive to provide. Providing health coverage to every American will allow them to see primary care physicians earlier in the slope of illness when treatment and care is less draconian and less expensive. This can mark a shift away from emergency and interventionist health care to a more wellness-centered, preventive medicine approach. From both a fiscal and public health standpoint, a National Health Insurance program simply makes sense. HEALTH / Medicare Prescription Drugs Do you support a prescription drug benefit, and if so, will you commit financial resources in your fiscal year 2006 budget submission to address the serious deficiencies in the reported conference agreement and work to fix serious structural deficiencies? Will you commit resources to eliminate each of those problems? What are your positions on these five issues?
At its heart, the Medicare program is a promise we, as taxpayers, made with each other and with our government. The promise was that through our contributions and withholdings, after reaching retirement age, the federal government would ease the burden that the cost of health care imposes upon the aged. Citizens of the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world should not be faced with choosing between paying for medication, doctors’ visits and food. The current Administration’s efforts to address the health care crisis faced by seniors in this country take us further down the road of privatization, and further away from the intent of the original promise of Medicare. Private health insurers and providers must, in order to enhance profitability, select the lowest risk individuals for whom to provide coverage. This will leave those at the highest risk, the most infirm of the elderly and the disabled, without many options and often without coverage. Medicare is the only system that, by distributing high risk individuals across the broadest possible population, can cover all the elderly, and should be fully funded. Instead of continuing to split pills and split the issue, we need to institute a single payer universal healthcare system that will close the gap in coverage for all Medicare beneficiaries and restore the patient provider relationship. We can make the system progressive by shifting it off the payroll tax base onto an income tax base. We will save money and provide Americans with a quality system of health care that is accessible to everyone. A single payer universal healthcare system that is decoupled from employment will help contain drug prices under amounts which current level Medicare beneficiaries pay. As President, I will work to convince the American people to adopt a single-payer Universal Health Insurance plan, one that will provide health care coverage to all Americans: the elderly, the poor and over 40 Million Americans who are currently uninsured. INCOME SECURITY / Social Security We would appreciate your views on Social Security’s future. Do you favor or oppose the following changes to Social Security?
We have an absolute obligation to maintain the promise of Social Security as it was designed. I do not support privatizing any part of Social Security with individual accounts. Retirement security is too vital to American seniors to be subject to the volatility of the stock market. Although suggested as a method to “reform Social Security”, The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland concluded that means testing for social security eligibility may serve as a disincentive to savings, a key element in retirement security. We must maintain the three-legged stool that is Social Security by encouraging pension portability, encouraging savings for retirement and making sure that Social Security remains intact for future generations. To ensure retirement security for all Americans, I support expanding pension and IRA opportunities to women and low-income workers. To ensure its solvency, we must stop raiding the Social Security Trust Fund, and must engage in fiscal discipline to reverse the enormous budget deficits created by the Bush Administration. INCOME SECURITY / Pensions Do you favor establishing a system of federally-sponsored universal retirement savings accounts in addition to Social Security, financed with new dollars, rather than with funds diverted from Social Security? Social Security funds must remain inviolate. We cannot America’s retirement security to be compromised by fiscally irresponsible policies. What are some of your recommendations for helping protect workers currently covered by defined benefit pensions and workplace savings plans? We must ensure pension portability while expanding IRA opportunities to more of America’s working people. LONG-TERM CARE Do you agree that federal and state policies should allow people who need long-term care to receive the services and supports in the least restrictive setting possible, including the home and community? Providing care to the elderly and the disabled in their homes and in the community allows the community to continue to benefit from their talents and contributions. Institutionalized care is often less effective for the overall well being of individuals whose needs might be met in less restrictive settings, and is certainly more costly. I support efforts to provide long-term care and assistance to individuals in less restrictive, community-based settings. How would your administration support and enhance current state efforts to move people from institutions to the community and to prevent premature or inappropriate nursing home placement? What, if anything, will you do to streamline or eliminate the home and community-based waiver process for states under Medicaid? In addition, how would your administration support unpaid or family caregivers who provide the majority of long-term care to older people with disabilities? Providing adequate funds to states to administer transitional programs for individuals who need long term care would be a priority of my administration. Unfunded mandates at the federal level leave states with massive budget shortfalls, resulting in program cuts. Although we must ensure that community-based service organizations provide high quality long-term care that meet federal standards, I support efforts to expedite the waiver process. Would your administration support, enhance or replace the current federal/state/local infrastructure to provide home and community-based services for older people (i.e. Older Americans Act program and the aging network, SSBG, senior transportation programs, elderly housing programs, etc.) and how would your administration do this? My Administration will support existing programs that address the needs of America’s elderly by more fully funding federal programs for the aged to ensure that states are not faced with unfunded mandates and budget shortfalls. The federal and state governments, together with individuals and families, all bear some financial responsibility for long-term care. How should these responsibilities ideally be distributed? Do you support the federal government bearing an increased burden? If so, how? The federal government has a responsibility to live up to the commitments it makes to individuals and to states. In order to better serve the needs of individuals seeking long-term care, the federal government should more fully fund transitional programs that integrate these individuals into community settings. COMMUNITY SERVICES / Older Americans Act What initiatives would you advance to support and augment the Older Americans Act and the vital services it provides to millions of older adults? The Older American Act made strides in providing services to the elderly. Through the unfortunate policies of the current Administration, funding for programs under the Older Americans Act have seen repeated cuts in funding. The shortfall in funding to states result in program cuts, and additional financial burdens upon America’s working families. In order to provide for the elderly and to better ensure that younger families aren’t faced with choosing between medication for their parents and college savings for their children, as President, I will make funding programs for America’s older people a priority. COMMUNITY SERVICES / Social Services Block Grants Would you support the restoration of the Social Services Block Grant authorization level to at least its pre-welfare reform level of $2.8 billion and restore the ability of states to transfer 10% of TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funds to SSBG? As a United State Senator, I opposed Welfare Reform because I realized that it would only succeed in pushing more of our most fragile populations (women, children, and the elderly) into poverty. In the years since welfare reform was enacted, more seniors are living in poverty, facing food insecurity, and have impermanent housing. As President, I will address the draconian measures of the welfare reform act by returning compassion to the White House. Rather than siphoning funds from the TANF program to serve the needs of the elderly, SSBG programs should be more fully funded at the federal level. COMMUNITY SERVICES / Senior Employment Program Would you support a ten percent increase in SCSEP funding, with would provide over 6,000 additional jobs for low-income Americans age 55 and older? Yes COMMUNITY SERVICES / Senior Volunteer Programs What plans do you have to support and, further, what other plans would you implement to make the best use of seniors as a resource in service to their communities, would you support a goal of doubling the number of senior volunteers sponsored through the National Senior Service Corps over the next five years? Our society will benefit when we can tap the talents of every American. America’s seniors can lend wisdom, skills and abilities to the community through participation in the National Senior Service Corps. As the baby-boomer generation ages, the capacity of programs that take advantage of their talents, skills, and abilities must be expanded, so that our society continues to benefit from their contributions. COMMUNITY SERVICES / Housing How important will it be to your administration to maintain and increase the supply of low-income senior housing we have in this country and what would you do to make sure health and housing services fit together for these people? The need for affordable housing for seniors and low-income Americans is dire. As housing costs in cities and suburbs increase exponentially, individuals on fixed incomes face housing insecurity. As President, I will work proactively to replenish the diminishing stock of truly affordable housing and to ensure that lower-cost housing for seniors provides basic services, in order to facilitate community integration efforts. COMMUNITY SERVICES / Transportation Please describe your plan to promote senior transportation as a priority within your Administration, and specifically do you support substantial increases in funding for the Federal Transportation Administration’s Section 5310 Program, the major transportation program for the elderly which is currently funded at $90 million? [No Response] FEDERAL RIGHTS What will your administration do to ensure full protection for the rights and welfare of our nation’s seniors? As a United States Senator, I worked to protect the civil rights of all Americans, and as President, I will work to ensure the welfare and defend the rights of older people. Towards this end, my judicial nominations will reflect an understanding of the law and respect of judicial precedent. My nominees will have established records for broad interpretations of civil rights laws. My judicial appointments will share an understanding of the intent of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other anti-discrimination laws and will not further narrow its scope. What steps will your administration take to address staffing problems in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities? Many of the concerns that have lead to the critical shortage of nurses in America’s hospitals and nursing homes are directly related to the way we have, historically, financed health care. A majority of people trained in the art and science of nursing who have left patient care say they did so because of staffing levels and mandatory overtime. The Department of Health and Human Services commissioned a report on the staffing issue in nursing homes, which Secretary Thomson wrongly dismissed as insufficient. A single-payer national health insurance plan would prioritize patient care, and take advantage of available research to help set staffing levels and conditions of work for providers. TAXES A series of tax cuts have been passed over the past three years, which have been criticized as contributing to these large deficit projections. Would you support modifications of any of these tax cuts, and if so, which ones in particular? This administration’s economic leadership gives voodoo economics a bad name. Nobody is doing well with this economy. Even foreign investors are fleeing out of trepidation about economic policy that creates record budget deficits and current account deficits while exacerbating the wealth disparities and economic inequality that inspire social instability. Specifically, I will:
I supported the Clinton tax bill that turned around the last Bush recession. We have to turn it around again, get away from war and depression and embrace peace and prosperity again.
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Leadership Council of Aging Organizations. All Rights Reserved. |
