AARP Tools Help You Make Your voice Heard

You’ve heard all about You’ve Earned a Say.

You’ve checked out the 15 proposals on how to fix Medicare and the 12 on how to fix Social Security.

You’ve probably the You’ve Earned a Say questionnaires. (You haven’t?! Visit the You’ve Earned a Say website now to make your voice heard!)

What more can you do? Tell candidates for Congress and the White House what you want them to do for Social Security and Medicare and find out where they stand.

Help is nearby.

First, AARP makes it easy to talk about the impact of the two programs here in Georgia. You can find the numbers of Georgians affected and the financial impact the programs have in a fact sheet for Georgia.

Second, AARP makes it easy to find out what your congressional candidates and the presidential candidates have said they’ll do – in their own words – for the two programs. Simply visit the You’ve Earned a Say website and, in the boxes on the right-hand side of the page, enter your zip code and street address. You’ll automatically see a page entitled “My Ballot” and the responses for your congressional candidates as well as the presidential candidates. (Remember, with redistricting this year, Georgia has a new congressional district and yours may have changed.)

Third, you’ve got two easy options for sending messages to the candidates. Click on the box in the middle of the main You’ve Earned a Say page to send a message to the presidential candidates. Or, once you’ve entered your address and zip code, look for the names, websites and email addresses of the two main presidential candidates. Click on the “Next” button at the top to see your congressional candidates, their responses and their contact information.

AARP Georgia believes that President Obama and Governor Romney owe all of us straight answers before Election Day. Urge them to have an open, public conversation about their plans for the future of Medicare and Social Security. Urge our congressional candidates to do likewise. Ask them where they stand on questions such as:

• How would you protect Social Security for today’s seniors and strengthen it for future generations?
  
• How would you put Medicare on stronger financial ground and protect today’s seniors and future retirees from the burden of rising health costs?
  
• How would you help Americans build a financial nest egg for their retirement?
  

Come Election Day, the answers that matter most will be the answers to the questions that matter the most to us, the voters. Together, we can make sure that our candidates know which questions matter to us.