Wednesday, December 14, 2005
The Ohio delegates to the White Conference on Aging got down to the nitty gritty details of debating policy yesterday (Tues). Some of them are still unhappy that the President didn't bother to attend. .
 (Click for larger view.) Belle Likover and Marc Molea
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Realplayer / Windows Media / MP3This fifth White House Conference on Aging has a half dozen themes to work on - like long term care, working after retirement, and elder friendly communities. But under it all is a drum beat foreshadowing the arrival of baby boomers into retirement. The Comptroller General of the United States, David Walker referred to them as a natural disaster.
Not prepared, said walker, because the country cannot afford the Social Security and especially Medicare costs of so many elders.
Walker didn't offer specific answers but implied that both tax hikes and benefit cuts will have to occur. The chairman of the Wyeth pharmaceutical company, Robert Essner called the impending jump in Alzheimers cases an epidemic, and said the national health care system could implode. Noting that his company is researching drugs to fight the disease, Essner called for fast track approvals from the Food and Drug Administration along the lines of those given for AIDS medication.
Less government regulation was a common refrain from speakers. Former US Senator and now Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne wanted private help - spurred by tax incentives - to help pay for long term care.
Former Congressman Hal Daub of Omaha, said government incentives are also needed to get people to invest in private pensions. He said Social Security and Medicare in the their current form are not sustainable...
No one directly brought up President Bush's proposal to partly privatize Social Security but it was clearly the elephant in the room. Some delegates got fed up with the speeches and tried to offer their own amendments...
Although the conference is under the auspices of the White House, the delegates argue it is a democratic body controlled by delegates. But Marvin Schachter of the California Commission on Aging, said the Bush Administration was pulling strings to restrict the discussions...
The delegates have been hashing out issues facing older Americans for the past 14 months at listening sessions held in Ohio and every other state. From those meetings, 73 resolutions were written. The delegates yesterday voted on the top 50 to implement. But Pedro Rodriguez of Philadelphia said the offerings did not reflect the local discussions.
Yesterday some Rodrigues and other delegates tried to submit petitions to amend resolutions from the floor - one of which called for government negotiations with drug companies to achieve the best prices in the new Medicaid drug plans.
Although delegates expected to see details of the resolutions weeks ago, most had only received them last Thursday or Friday. The president of the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, Tony Fransetta, said delegates in local meetings had spoken out against privatizing social security but now don't have the opportunity to go on the record about it.
Three of the Speakers, were appointees. The three elected officials who spoke were all Republican. And three of the 4 members of congress on the Policy Committee are republicans. But Committee Chairman Dorcas Hardy said they were not orchestrated by the Bush administration.
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