Is this how America sees its Senior Citizens?

You have my condolences about the loss of your hard earned savings.

There is no way to generalize what people think of any group of people. Apparently some specific people with an agenda hold a view similar to that.

I know several people who live on social security or SSI and they live in shared housing.

No, it is not how most of us see older Americans. But it is how Republicans view Senior Citizens. They view you as a reliable vote from a generation that wants low taxes and no Government help for anyone. And they view you as agreeing to cut social security and medicare for everyone younger than you.

What I think is that the Republicans could avoid cutting social security benefits & medicare benefits & medicaid benefits for any of the younger generation(s) if they would agree to reducing the budget of the military & get us out of the wars in which we are entangled. The military budget gets most of our tax dollars & the money could be far better spent on things that America actually needs. The DHS, the CIA, the ICE, the FBI, etc. could all have their budgets reduced & that would free up even more tax dollars. However, politicians (& the big corporations who keep them in power with their campaign donations) rarely see things my way. So I guess the answer is “Damned if you do, & Damned if you don’t” & all good things must come to an end. It will be a sad & bitter world that our children & grand children will inherit & even the survival of the only planet that we have to live on is in doubt as it is drowning in pollution.

In Australia more is spent on the care and feeding of illegal immigrants than on pensioners. And still the do gooders complain about the horrendous treatment of the illegals. Governments always seem to put pensioners at the bottom of the pile. Here unemployed teen agers also get more than pensioners.

Assuming you are over 55 nothing will ever change for you. Even the most strident reformer of benefit payouts does not start the adjustment unless you are below 55.

I just made 65 and have about 50 years continuously employed. I know that the proposed changes to Social Security and Medicare won’t affect me but I’m sensitive enough to care what happens to my brother whose 10 years my junior.

Someone needs to explain to me how a for profit medical and insurance system improves services and security for anyone, especially the elderly.

I am old enough to remember medical insurance before HMO’s and health insurance companies. It was pretty simple, your company’s insurance paid your hospital bill through a non-profit Blue Cross or Blue Shield whose only job was to pay medical bills with money provided by company insurance. First we had HMO’s to “reduce and control the costs of medical care”. Then insurance companies “competed” for our insurance dollars. So we went from a system of non-profit community hospitals and payment agencies to multi-billion dollar profit insurance companies. Costs have done nothing but climb and care has taken us from number one to 25 or so for effective and safe medical care. Executives have corporate jets and we share a room with three others that are near death and it is called “semi-private” and it only costs $1200 a day with nurses aides doing the job of registered nurses whose unions are attacked by the people making profits off of our misery.

There are certain things that should be not profit, medical care, social security, prison systems, and a range of public services that a reasonable civilization provides. It is immoral and irresponsible to make vital services profit centers.

Does America see its senior citizens as living high off the government teat? Are seniors taking more than they deserve? Is it because of seniors that we don’t have enough money for the poor or the rich or business? Is it because of seniors that we can’t afford another hitech bomber? Do seniors keep our kids from getting an education? Are seniors eating up the money for everyone else’s health care?

Well, anyone who buys that bs is an idiot. I trust Obama will be able to make that case. But seniors tend to support Romney more than younger people do. Maybe they know, as @josie suggests, that the Ryan plan starts reducing Medicare benefits only for people who are under the age of 55 right now. Golly gee! Ryan’s Medicare plan won’t change things for me! Woohoo! Let me thumb my nose at all my 54 year old friends!

Right now, the polls show that Obama is doing better than Romney. That could change and will change before the election. It may go back and forth a few times. Who knows? But the Republicans are trying to sell a radical right wing philosophy, and that’s going to be difficult for them. I don’t know when they will learn. They tried it four years ago. They’re trying it again. And I hope to hell they try it in another four years, as well.

Despite their radicalism, they seem to be changing government policy without holding the presidency. Maybe they realize they don’t need to hold the presidency except when supreme court justices are going to retire. But they are able to hold the line for rich people, and that’s all good for their folks.

Seniors are struggling, for the most part. Just like at least half the population. That’s the nature of life, I think. But we should do our best to keep the difference between the rich and poor to a minimum, and that is something we are utterly failing at at the moment.

@wundayatta ” But seniors tend to support Romney more than younger people do” just because some of us got older, it doesn’t mean that we got any wiser. America seems to have a lock on brain dead seniors. By the way, I’m 65 so I’m talking about some of my peers. Well peer is probably the wrong word, let’s just say they’re my age or older.

The question is, @Ron_C, whether they are educable.

@wundayatta ahh, educating the elderly. Some, can be educated but probably not enough.

If anything is evident in recent American history, its that presidents are picked by appearance rather than substance. If I had my way I would allow political speeches on the radio but forbid television. With radio you have no distraction by appearances or backgrounds.

Quite frankly, it horrifies me that many Senior Citizens do support the Republicans. I am a Senior Citizen & I can see thru the lies that the Republicans & Romney try to pass off as being true & the thought that Romney / Ryan might actually win in November scares the dickens out of me. Obama is far from perfect but he is SO MUCH BETTER than Romney / Ryan!