The Republican party platform, orchestrated by former President Trump, is filled with promises for those it calls “our Great Seniors.” But there is little or no real policy behind most of those campaign pledges. And the document is filled with many irreconcilable contradictions.
The platform will be the GOP’s election-year policy framework coming out of its upcoming July 15-18 nominating convention. And it recognizes some critical needs of seniors and sets goals that would improve their quality of life and that of their families. But it rarely describes how Trump and the GOP would achieve those goals.
Social Security
The document is full of uppercase promises such as, “FIGHT FOR AND PROTECT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE WITH NO CUTS, INCLUDING NO CHANGES TO THE RETIREMENT AGE.”
But that bold pledge ignores a singular reality. Within about a decade, absent major changes, the Social Security trust fund will have only enough money to pay about 78% of promised benefits. That means a typical retiree receiving about $1,900-a-month in benefits would see their payments decline by more than $400.
In other words, those promised “NO CUTS” are impossible without major reforms. But the platform is completely mute on what they’d be.
Medicare
Same story with Medicare. The platform promises “NO CUTS” but is silent on how to make the troubled Hospital Insurance trust fund solvent.
It does make one promise: “Republicans will protect Medicare’s finances from being financially crushed by the Democrat plan to add tens of millions of new illegal immigrants to the rolls of Medicare.”
But undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicare. Undocumented workers must pay the Medicare payroll tax but can’t collect benefits. Thus, they make Medicare’s finances stronger, not weaker. And few Democrats support expanding Medicare benefits to the undocumented.
Immigration And Care Workers
The implacable opposition of Trump and his party to immigration hurts seniors in other ways and creates a massive inconsistency in the platform. It follows a pattern from Trump’s first term in office.
On one hand, it vows to shut the US borders to immigration and initiate the “largest deportation program in American history.” But it also promises to “overturn disincentives that lead to Care Worker shortages.” Except one of the largest causes of care worker shortages is, wait for it, restrictive immigration policy.
For example, the US will need to fill 5.5 million vacant home care jobs by 2031, according to PHI International. But few native-born Americans want to do this low-paid and dangerous work. Where will those workers come from?
About one-third of on-the-books home care workers currently are immigrants. Licensed home care aides, for example, have work papers. But an unknown, but significant, number of gray market workers are undocumented. And many working on green cards have family members who are undocumented.
Booting foreign-born workers out of the country will make the care worker shortages vastly worse, placing even more burdens on family members, jeopardizing the health of frail older adults, and driving more people who need long-term care out of their homes and into nursing facilities. All exactly the opposite of what the platform promises.
And it isn’t just aides. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that about a half million registered nurses are immigrants, one of every six nurses in the US. Nearly one-third of all hospitals report hiring foreign-educated nurses.
Notwithstanding the platform’s promise to “work with our Great Seniors, in order to allow them to be active and healthy,” the immigration provisions of the GOP platform will make their lives infinitely worse.
Tax Credits
The platform also promises unspecified tax credits for family caregivers. There is less to that pledge than meets the eye as well.
Tax credits come in two flavors, refundable and non-refundable. Most are non-refundable, which means they are unavailable to low- and even many moderate-income households who pay no federal income tax. Refundable tax credits are more available, but they cost the Treasury more revenue and generally have been opposed by Republicans.
And even if you are eligible, the credits represent no more than a drop in the financial bucket for most frail older adults and their families. A federal credit may be $750 or $1,000. But the average annual cost of a home care aide is $75,000. And a nursing home can easily cost twice as much.
Primary Care
Then, the platform says this: “Republicans will support increased focus on Chronic Disease prevention and management, Long-Term Care, and Benefit flexibility. We will expand access to Primary Care and support Policies that help Seniors remain in their homes and maintain Financial Security.”
All laudable goals. But what do they mean?
Focusing on long-term care is nice but it isn’t a plan.
Another example: Access to primary care is important. But given the severe shortage of primary care physicians and nurse practitioners, increased access is a pipe dream.
How would Trump and a GOP Congress increase incentives for medical professionals to get into primary care? Silence.
There’s lots more, but you get the drift. Promising support for “our Great Seniors” is nice. But without real, consistent policy ideas, it is meaningless.