Older Voters Are Focused on the Economy This Election Season

Social Security a key factor in election decisions

Along with Medicare funding, the viability of Social Security remains a critical concern for older Americans.

The 2024 report from Social Security’s trustees laid out the long-term solvency challenge for the program: By 2035, drastic action will be needed to prevent cutting Social Security and disability insurance benefits 17 percent. “It would have a huge impact on tens of millions of people,” says Max Richtman, CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “This would put them over the edge into poverty.”

Andrew Biggs, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, says another option is to raise how much income is subject to Social Security taxes from the current $168,600. The amount of income subject to Social Security tax has dropped from 90 percent of earnings to 83 percent, Biggs says. But “it’s always been easier for politicians to kick the can down the road.... No one wants to take an unpopular stand.”

Biggs points out that no presidential candidate has said they want to cut benefits, but “how do they keep their promises?”

“I worry about Social Security and Medicare being reduced or cut or done away.”

— Jane Cocking, 77

Jane Cocking hands John his medication at their home.

Nicole Craine

Caregiving motivates many

Terri Peacher-Ransom, 66, is one of millions of Americans who serve as caregivers to loved ones. Her husband, Don Ransom, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2005. Her day revolves around his medication schedule, and she worries he will fall. He is rated as 100 percent disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs. That means she’s eligible for a home care aide to come give him a bath three times a week and to give her four hours a week of respite care.

“We are advocating for the people we are taking care of to be treated as human,” says Peacher-Ransom, of Indianapolis. “Care­giving is a part of America’s landscape. They need to realize caregivers are important.”

In some states, elections are likely to decide the lawmakers who will create policy on tax credits for family caregivers to offset their expenses — such as installing wheelchair ramps and ferrying loved ones to doctor appointments. This would help caregivers, including people who don’t live with the person being cared for and aren’t their dependents, like a child taking care of a parent. Nebraska, Oklahoma and Maryland have passed laws, and Congress is weighing a bill called the Credit for Caring Act.

One in 5 Americans are family caregivers. They provide the equivalent of about $600 billion a year in labor to help their loved ones, according to AARP estimates. Caregivers pay on average $7,200 out of pocket each year, and the bill would allow those eligible to get a tax credit for up to $5,000 to partially offset their costs.

Polls show another concern of Americans is inflation. Among voters 50 and older in the AARP poll of competitive congressional districts, it was second only to immigration as the top concern of 28 percent of those polled. Biggs says the new president could have an impact on inflation. Efforts endorsed by leading Democrats for programs to forgive student loans could push inflation up, he says, as could higher tariffs, which are part of the GOP platform.

Fear of higher taxes also remains a motivation for voters. Tax cuts made during the Trump administration, including for estate taxes, will expire at the end of next year unless lawmakers intervene. That would eliminate lower individual tax rates and the benefit of a more generous standard deduction.For many older voters, an ever-growing divide between political parties, with increasingly divisive rhetoric, is a concern.

Cocking hopes the election will sweep into office politicians who are willing to work across the aisle to tackle the nation’s biggest challenges, not just people “so invested in hating the other party.”

“I’m lucky at least I can pay it without going without food,” Deanna Brandt says of the high price of medications.

Jamie Kelter Davis