Arizona 2024 Senate Race: Gallego, Lake Talk Social Security, Medicare
En español | In one of this year’s most highly contested races, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake will vie for the Senate seat held by Kyrsten Sinema, an independent, who did not seek reelection.
Lake is a former television news anchor who made a bid for governor in 2022. Gallego, a military veteran and son of Latino immigrants, has represented Arizona’s third congressional district since 2014.
AARP spoke with the candidates in July about issues important to older Americans. Their answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
AARP studies show 48 million family caregivers provide at least $600 billion in unpaid care a year, many helping their older loved ones continue to live independently. If elected, how would you support family caregivers, many of whom are juggling work and family?
LAKE: We should really consider a tax incentive to help people who are doing that, who are providing and covering long-term care and expenses for their families. This is critical, and if they weren’t there to help, then the system would have to help pick up the slack.
GALLEGO: What we’ve seen with the [U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs], where we’ve actually had paid family caregivers at home, has been a very good improvement in terms of health care outcomes for the veterans and for the families, as well as cost savings for the VA. That’s one area that we could be looking at, to see if there can be compensation for those family caregivers.
Social Security is expected to see a shortfall in approximately 10 years. If Congress doesn’t act, millions of Americans who are counting on Social Security may see cuts to the money they’ve earned. If elected, how would you protect Social Security benefits for the future?
GALLEGO: We need to remove the caps [on Social Security taxable earnings]. Right now, it’s capped at $168,600. For every dollar after that there is no Social Security tax.... Removing the caps would quickly refill and stabilize the Social Security Trust Fund[s].
LAKE: The “America First” movement will never cut Social Security or Medicare benefits. When you look at the wasteful spending and the irresponsible spending and the out-of-control measures that those in Washington, D.C., have taken part in the last few years, there’s a million other places we can cut.... But we also have to grow our way out of this mess. And that means supporting businesses and manufacturing to reshore here to America to give people better jobs, higher paying jobs.
Medicare provides critical health coverage for older Americans. If elected, how will you protect Medicare from benefit cuts, and how can the program be improved?
LAKE: Medicare works well for our seniors.... We have to get some serious investigators to look at anybody committing Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Because when we see $100 billion in [such] fraud every year, if we can make sure that’s not happening, that’s $100 billion that can go into actually providing good care.
GALLEGO: The most important way to protect Medicare is to make sure Medicare is solvent. And that’s where we find savings when it comes to, for example, prescription drug competition. That’s going to save Medicare billions and billions of dollars, while at the same time still providing high quality health care.
Americans pay some of the highest prescription drug prices in the world. If elected, how will you lower prescription drug prices for all Americans?
GALLEGO: We need to protect it ... that program that we installed with the [Inflation Reduction Act] that has brought the cost of drugs down, as well as capping the amount that seniors [on Medicare drug plans] pay per year. By next year, it’s going to be down to $2,000. So continuing that is important, and adding more of the drugs that we’re going to negotiate is really important.
LAKE: We should continue to allow Medicare to negotiate directly with drug manufacturers for the best pricing.... We can create tax incentives for start-ups that are producing some of those commonly prescribed drugs and expensive generic drugs. And then target the middleman—prescription benefit managers, who are making billions of dollars off of American patients. And they’re really not providing any actual benefits.
Older workers often face age discrimination in getting or keeping jobs. If elected, how would you combat age discrimination and help older workers who need or want to continue working?
LAKE: Once we ... repatriate these people who poured in illegally during the Biden invasion ... we’re going to have a lot of job openings. And I don’t believe there’s a company out there who’s going to want to discriminate based on age.... We’re going to have a need for American workers. And that will include those who are of retirement age, as well, if they choose to go back to work or even people who are nearing retirement.
GALLEGO: We need to make sure the [U.S] Department of Labor takes age discrimination just as seriously as it takes any of the other protected classes.... There’re some people that unfortunately cannot retire due to economic reasons, something that we definitely want to continue working on. But there are also people that want to continue work ... and they should have that same ability without discrimination.
Millions of American workers have no way to save for retirement through their employers. If elected, what steps would you take to help American workers save for their retirement?
GALLEGO: We really do need to make it easier for people to open up 401(k)s and Roth IRAs and be able to transfer them.... It’s not as easy to just transfer your 401(k)s or Roth IRAs when you move from, for example ... a business that offers it to when you’re self employed to when you’re maybe not employed.... And then we need to make sure that Social Security continues to be solvent.
LAKE: We really need to go way back and start at an early age, honestly, with financial literacy classes in our schools.... We have to strengthen our economy, get out of this survival mode, get into a mode where people can afford the items they need to get by and then have a little extra money on the side.
If elected, what will you do to improve the lives of older Americans and their families?
LAKE: Making sure they know that their Social Security is protected, that their Medicare is protected.... But more importantly, we’re going to make sure we’re protecting them with keeping Trump’s tax cuts in place.... Also, making sure that we do things like keeping our prescription drug prices low, and lowering them not just for seniors but for all Americans. And doing a better job at stoking our economy in the right direction so that we’re bringing back manufacturing, encouraging companies to relocate back to America.
GALLEGO: We need to make sure that people can age with dignity. One of the best advancements that Medicare and Social Security did was it brought [people] out of poverty.... We want to make sure that Medicare stays solvent and without benefit cuts, as well as ... further prescription drug competition to bring down the cost of drugs much like we were able to cap insulin.... We need to make sure also that we’re fighting against senior and predatory fraud that is consistently occurring in our community, as well as elder abuse.
—Interviews by Stacey Shepard
Find more information on the candidates at gallegoforarizona.com and karilake.com.
As a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, AARP does not endorse candidates or make political donations.
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