Bio | Lieberman Responses | Main Candidate Page

Throughout his public life -- whether representing his community of New Haven, Connecticut in the state legislature, fighting for the people of his state as Attorney General, serving 14 years in the United States Senate, or running for Vice President in 2000 alongside Al Gore -- Joe Lieberman has dedicated himself to giving something back to the country that has given him so much.

He has done his best to honor the values -- faith, family and freedom, equal opportunity and tolerance -- that he learned from his parents, his teachers and his hometown. Joe's father worked his way up from the back of a bakery truck to own his own liquor store. His mom, like his dad, is the child of immigrants. Together, they worked hard to earn the money to send Joe to college -- the first in his family to go. From there, he went on to law school, and began serving the people of his state, in the State Senate, in 1971. During the 1970s, Joe worked with Governor Ella Grasso to protect consumers and the environment and promote new job growth in Connecticut.

Lieberman has fought to knock down barriers, stop discrimination, and extend the promise of America to all our people. In the 1960s, Joe joined thousands to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the historic March on Washington, and led a group of students to Mississippi to fight for African-Americans' right to vote.

As Connecticut's Attorney General from 1983 to 1988, Joe stood with single moms against deadbeat dads, fought corporations that broke the law to prey on consumers, and prosecuted polluters to make them pay. And in the Senate over the last 14 years, he's continued to lead -- guided not by partisan politics, but by his principles -- and to fight for what's right for America.

Joe has worked hard to spur innovation, create jobs, and keep the government's books in balance. He's fought to keep our nation safe and secure, by championing the creation a Department of Homeland Security to better protect America from terrorist attack. He's pushed to protect and preserve our environment for future generations. He's a strong advocate for investing in our public schools, empowering parents, and giving all Americans the chance to go to college. And he has worked to expand quality and affordable health care to every American and safeguard Medicare and Social Security for future generations.

Joe and his wife Hadassah have four children: Matthew, Rebecca, Ethan, and Hana. Plus they are the grandparents of three beautiful girls, Tennessee, Willie and Eden. He wants for them just what all Americans want for their families a fair chance to live their dreams. That's the promise of America.

HEALTH / Medicaid

What do you think should be done to ensure the sustainability of the Medicaid program and improve it? Prior to full meaningful reform, would you support the continuation of a temporary increase in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)?

To begin with, I would create a new universal health care access program for children. 6 million of the currently 9 million children uninsured are already eligible for Medicaid or S-CHIP but are still not enrolled. As President, I will create MediKids -- a new, flexible, high-quality health plan in which every baby will automatically be enrolled at birth or during any lapse in coverage. The plan-which parents are free to decline-would offer affordable and reliable care to ALL children through young adulthood, up to age 25. MediKids will be phased in over 5 years, and children with existing coverage, including Medicaid and S-CHIP, would be welcome but not required to change. The coverage will be comprehensive and affordable. Families earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level ($37,000 for a family of four) will receive MediKids coverage at no cost. Others will pay premiums on a sliding scale based on income, with no family paying more than 7.5% of their income for the plan.

My health care plan would also give states the authority and additional funding to fully cover expanding the Medicaid program to all adults with household incomes less than 150% of federal poverty, or about $28,000 for a family of four. For the first time states would be able to use federal funding to provide coverage to poor, uninsured adults who are neither caring for a dependant child, elderly, nor disabled. This approach will also simplify Medicaid eligibility and streamline enrollment.

I have consistently supported the Family Opportunity Act to give states the option of allowing families of disabled children to purchase Medicaid coverage, and I cosponsored a measure that expanded Medicaid services to those who became disabled before age 22. I also supported a move to eliminate income, assets, and resource limitations for disabled workers who buy into Medicaid.

As President, I will work to protect against unfair restrictions of Medicaid rights, such as President Bush's proposals to cut Medicaid eligibility and benefits and to waive due process protections to challenge and appeal adverse Medicaid decisions.

I have long been a supporter of FMAP increases, and I cosponsored legislation to that effect.

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?

Yes. Recently, we had an historic opportunity to do the right thing for America's seniors - by giving them a prescription drug benefit under Medicare. But the Republicans were determined to pay off special interests, rip off taxpayers, hurt low-income seniors, and undermine Medicare through privatization.

As President, I'll pass a better prescription drug bill - one that doesn't raise costs for our most vulnerable seniors or send seniors into HMOs. I'll harness the purchasing power of Medicare to keep drug costs down. And I'll ensure that Medicare remains on a financially sound footing, and provides a meaningful prescription drug benefit for all seniors.

What are your positions on these five issues? (pertaining to the prescription drug legislation)

1. Artificial budget caps
2. The lack of a dependable fallback delivery system
3. An administratively complex means testing of the benefit?
4. Failure to obtain more cost savings in prescription drug prices?
5. Competition between traditional fee-for-service Medicare and various types of managed care plans?

I signed many letters and cosponsored amendments to oppose each of the concerns outlined above. There are many reasons why I opposed this legislation.

First, I fear the privatization of the prescription drug benefit could lead to the destruction of Medicare in the next ten years. Second, the new drug benefit is actually going to harm millions of low-income seniors by making them pay more for the drugs they are currently getting under Medicaid. Not only will the drugs cost more money, but the choice of prescription drugs will be significantly limited. I do not believe the government should be in the business of telling seniors what drugs they can and cannot have. I believe that is the responsibility of doctors. Additionally, this law provides billions of dollars in subsidies to private insurance companies to encourage them to participate in this program. This money could be used instead to provide seniors with better prescription drug coverage.

But most problematic is that this law actually prohibits the federal government from negotiating the best possible price for prescription drugs. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is not permitted to use the buying power of more than 40 million people to help bring down the cost of prescription drugs for seniors. The Veterans Administration has been negotiating drug costs for veterans for decades and Medicare should too. Many Presidents and Members of Congress have made the promise to seniors to provide them with a sound prescription drug program under traditional Medicare, but regrettably, have failed or been unable to keep that promise. I had tremendous hope that this Congress was finally going to deliver on this promise, and the Senate bill that I voted for in July 2003 took great steps in doing just that. Unfortunately, behind closed doors, the solid, bipartisan effort that created the Senate bill fell apart. And as a result, seniors got a bill that will benefit some, but also hurt millions by reducing the coverage that they have now and could ultimately threaten Medicare as we know it.

I will continue to fight to ensure that seniors are given a benefit that is truly beneficial; one that does not lead to the privatization of Medicare and one that provides true cost savings to seniors by permitting Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for cheaper drugs.

HEALTH / Medicare

What are your specific plans to help ensure the financial future of the Medicare program?

I have long fought for increasing provider payments under the Medicare payment system, eliminating regional disparities in Medicare payments, and keeping Medicare costs for seniors as low as possible. For example, I introduced legislation to increase provider payments and decrease patient co-payments for colon cancer screening procedures under Medicare. I have also cosponsored legislation to reduce Medicare patient co-payments for care for mental illnesses.

But in addition to these measures, I have called for decreasing upper income tax cuts, decreasing middle class taxes, and reducing the unreasonable federal deficit so we can afford to keep our promise to American seniors through Medicare and Social Security.

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?

• Diverting payroll tax dollars into individual accounts
  
  Oppose. This is a move that would undermine the system instead of strengthening it.
  
  
• Raising the retirement age
  
  Oppose. No responsible politician can take it off the table entirely-but we don't need to do it now.
  
  
• Raising the cap on taxable wages
  
  Oppose.
  
  
• Means-testing benefits
  
  Oppose. This would undo the social contract on which Social Security is based.
  
  
• Efforts to modernize the SSI program
  
  Support.
  

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?

First, I support safeguarding traditional Social Security and I do not support replacing it with private accounts or diverting funds away from Social Security. I support retirement savings accounts above and beyond the Social Security system to help people increase personal savings.

What are some of your recommendations for helping to protect workers currently covered by defined benefit pensions and workplace savings plans?

First, as President, I will crack down on corporate fraud that threatens workers' retirements. In just the past few years, we've had WorldCom, the accounting scandals, and most recently the scandal over mutual funds. Corporate greed cannot be allowed to steal our retirement savings.

Yet this Administration has been asleep on the issue. Insiders and mutual fund managers have been ripping off ordinary investors' retirement funds-and the SEC took a backseat to state attorneys general in exposing the fraud. When I'm President, our watchdogs won't be sleeping, they'll be looking out for you. We'll start by creating an Office of the Investor at the SEC to protect the interests of average investors - and the retirement savings of millions of Americans.

Second, I will ensure that pension funds are not underfunded. Right now some companies are playing fast and loose with the numbers they use to calculate their pension liability -- and this has resulted in pension funds are underfunded. As President, I will not allow corporations to write bad checks to their employees and retirees.

Third, I will make sure that the federal government doesn't let companies off the hook. Some companies want Congress to set new rules for pension liability that would reduce pension funding obligations and could devastate lump sum payments. But pension funding relief should not come at the expense of workers.

Finally, I'll grow the economy and I'll create 10 million jobs and I'll cut taxes for 98% of all taxpayers. A strong, growing economy is the single best way to secure everyone's retirement.

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?

Absolutely. We owe our seniors the best care we can give them-especially for what they're paying. Not just medical treatment. Care with dignity. Community. And as much independence as possible.

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?

I believe that with the right leadership, we can help all America's seniors afford high-quality long-term care today and be ready as the challenges grow exponentially tomorrow. I support the ability of states to design programs that best fit the needs of their populations, but I do not support waivers in the Medicaid program that short change funding for programs for seniors. I want seniors to be able to stay in their homes and communities as long as possible before going into institutions, and that requires adequate funding. I have supported such legislation in the Senate. With that goal in mind, I have proposed a long-term care affordability plan to complement state efforts to help people with their long term care needs. The plan includes the following ideas:

• Provide a tax credit for family caregivers. I recognize the financial and emotional burden that family members shoulder when a loved one needs care. Estimates of the number of family caregivers vary between 45 million and 52 million individuals nationwide. To help these often overlooked and under-supported caregivers, I'll give people caring for relatives a tax credit worth up to $3,000 to cover some of the cost of this care.
  
  
• Eliminate the outdated assets test for seniors in the Medicaid program. Today, low-income seniors have to spend themselves into the poor house to meet an indefensible assets test of $2,000 per individual to qualify for long-term care benefits under Medicaid. That's wrong. As President, I will extend access to home health care, assisted living, and nursing home care, along with all other Medicaid benefits such as prescription drug coverage, to an additional two million needy seniors. This will also give low-income families the same opportunity to hold onto their homes that wealthy families who can afford estate planning have and it will cut down on paperwork and bureaucracy in the system--a common complaint of Medicaid recipients and overworked state workers.
  
  
• Give taxpayers a long-term care insurance tax deduction to help cover the cost of premiums. Private long-term care insurance is one of the best ways for Americans to prepare for the day when they will need additional assistance. I will enable middle-class Americans to deduct half the cost of insurance premiums, whether or not they itemize their taxes. This will not only take the edge off rising coverage costs; it will encourage the purchase of long-term care insurance before people need it, and help Americans plan ahead.
  
  
• Encourage long-term care insurance policies to be offered under employer benefit package "cafeteria" plans and flexible spending accounts. Just as employers can offer health care, life and disability insurance policies under "cafeteria" plans, or offer employees flexible spending accounts to put aside pre-tax dollars to pay for health care and child care needs, I will give workers more access to long-term care policies by pushing employers to offer them in benefit packages at work. And he will allow workers to set aside part of their salaries pre-tax to pay for long-term care costs.

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 would enhance the current infrastructure, specifically by fully funding the programs that serve the elderly and by restoring full funding to the Social Services Block Grant.

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?

Please refer to the earlier answer, detailing my plan to make long-term care more affordable.

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?

Throughout my tenure in the Senate I have fully supported the Older Americans Act. As President, I will continue to support the funding necessary to allow the vital programs under the OAA to serve as many seniors as possible, especially as the baby boomers retires and the need for such programs grows. In addition, my long term care affordability plan will complement the programs under the OAA to help seniors plan for and pay for their long term care needs.

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?

Yes. I authored legislation (The Charity Aid, Recovery, and Empowerment Act of 2002) that fully restored SSBG funding and restored the 10% transfer.

COMMUNITY SERVICES / Senior Employment Program

Would you support a ten percent increase in SCSEP funding, which would provide over 6,000 additional jobs for low-income Americans age 55 and older?

I fully support seniors in the workplace if they choose to or need to work for economic reasons. The SCSEP program is an important way to keep seniors involved and engaged in their communities. As President I will carefully look at the SCSEP funding levels and I will keep in mind the vital funding it provides for low income seniors.

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 and, specifically, would you support a goal of doubling the number of senior volunteers sponsored through the National Senior Service Corps over the next five years?

I believe we should do all we can to keep seniors involved and engaged in our communities. Seniors are a valued resource and the programs of the National Senior Service Corps are a wonderful way to bring the talents of senior volunteers where they are needed most. I have been a consistent supporter of the Corporation for National and Community Service in the Senate, and as President I will continue to be supportive of its programs.

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?

As our population ages, providing coordinated services for seniors will become more and more important. My administration will take seriously the need to find the best ways to keep seniors in their communities and out of institutions. As President, I will keep Hope VI alive and maintain Section 8 funding formulas. Currently only 16% of housing vouchers go to the elderly. We need to expand low income housing choices for the elderly. I will create more subsidized housing that includes on-site services for seniors.

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?

Transportation can be a lifeline for isolated seniors, especially in rural areas. When I'm president, I will focus attention on the ways in which we can keep seniors engaged and living active lives in their communities through expanding transportation services. I believe the Section 5310 Program should have additional funding to not only replace aging vehicles, but to expand capacity in the program by purchasing new vehicles. This will help us reach our goal of expanding transportation to more seniors.

FEDERAL RIGHTS

What will your administration do to ensure full protection for the rights and welfare of our nation’s seniors?

My administration will fully enforce the laws that protect seniors. In addition, as President I will take on the industries that intentionally exploit seniors and trick them into spending money on fraudulent consumer items or causes, specifically the telemarketing and insurance industries and home repair contractors.

What steps will your administration take to address staffing problems in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities?

The quality of the care seniors get is only as good as the nurses who help them. Nurses are the backbone of the system. But right now, that backbone is bending-and almost breaking. The nursing shortage has reached critical levels. I sponsored legislation in the Senate to keep nurses on the job and to help them get further training.

When I'm President, we'll make supporting nurses a top priority. Here's what I'll do:

• Guard the rights and improve the benefits of nurses.
• End mandatory overtime, which currently leads to burnout among nurses
• Increase the number of nurses in the workforce by improving recruitment and retention
• Let nurses spend less time on paperwork - and more time doing the work they are trained to and love to do.

Nurses are the backbone of our health care system. We need a President who understands this, and who will ensure that supporting nurses is a top priority.

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?

With his massive, irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, President Bush has created enormous deficits, and shifted tax burdens from the wealthy and corporate interests to working middle-class families.

As President, I will change this equation - and restore fairness and integrity to our tax code again. My plan would repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and eliminate wasteful corporate welfare - while cutting taxes for 98 percent of all taxpayers. Here's what I'll do:

• Reset the top two income tax rates that George W. Bush lowered, to allocate the individual tax burden more fairly
• Cut taxes for 98% of taxpayers
• Restore the dividend tax that Bush repealed
• Reform the estate tax that Bush repealed
• Eliminate wasteful corporate loopholes and subsidies that Bush has protected

I'll also push for other important spending reforms, like capping overall spending at the rate of inflation - other than for Social Security, Medicare, and national and homeland defense. I will cut the deficit every year I'm in office, and balance the budget by the end of my second term.

Taken together, these steps will restore fairness to our tax code, help us significantly close the deficit, and safeguard Social Security, Medicare, and other vital programs for when the Baby Boomers retire.

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