{"id":6157,"date":"2024-10-19T10:11:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-19T14:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/?p=6157"},"modified":"2024-11-19T10:11:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T15:11:35","slug":"the-2024-election-a-postmortem-new-york-state-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-42-no-9\/the-2024-election-a-postmortem-new-york-state-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2024 Election: A Postmortem New York State Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PEFNovember 25, 2024<\/em> —<\/em> By Barry A. Kaufmann, President, New York State Alliance for Retired Americans<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Reprinted with permission from the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans. First published Nov. 11, 2024, and edited to reflect vote counts as of Nov. 19, 2024.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2024 election did not further the objectives of seniors in New York or the nation. The results were disappointing to many NYSARA members who know that attacks on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act are likely to be forthcoming. Let\u2019s take a look at what occurred.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Donald Trump won the popular vote 76,611,196 to 74,026,485 (as of Nov. 19) and the Electoral College 312-226. But let\u2019s analyze those votes. According to the AARP, voters over the age of 50 comprised 52% of the total voters in this election. Of those voters, those 50-64 voted for Trump by a margin of 56% to 43% for Harris and those over the age of 65 split evenly at 49% for Trump and Harris, which was an improvement over 2020 when Trump held a 53% to 47% advantage.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Senate flipped to 53 Republican Senators and 47 Democrats. This might enable the Democrats to stop particularly egregious legislation unless the Republicans get rid of the filibuster. The House majority also went to the Republicans, with 218 seats to 212 seats decided as of Nov. 18.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In New York State we voted for Harris for President, albeit by a significantly lower margin than we voted for Biden in 2020. We returned Kirsten Gillibrand (D) to the Senate and did yeoman\u2019s work to flip three House seats, an accomplishment unmatched by any other state in the nation. Through NYSARA members and labor\u2019s efforts we flipped the 4th Congressional District on Long Island with Laura Gillen defeating incumbent Anthony D\u2019Esposito, the 19th Congressional District in the Mid-Hudson Valley where Josh Riley defeated incumbent Marcus Molinaro, and the 22nd Congressional District in Central New York where former NYSUT member and Chapter President John Mannion defeated incumbent Brendan Williams.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The blame game has begun. While Trump convinced more people of color, especially Latinos, to vote for him, and won all seven swing states, he got only about 400,000 votes more nationally than in 2020. The real difference was the voters that didn\u2019t show up for Vice President Harris. In 2020 Joe Biden received 81,283,501 votes compared with Kamala Harris\u2019 74,026,485 votes in 2024, a decrease in turnout of a little more than 10 million people. The jury is out on why that was, whether the messaging the Democrats used was not reaching those people or struck people as elitist, or whether it was misogyny, racism, all of the above, or none of the above.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact is that certain functions and programs of the federal government are in jeopardy under the Trump Administration according to their rhetoric and Republican positions on senior issues. Since the Republicans control all sectors of government (Executive, the Senate and the House as well as a VERY conservative Supreme Court) their ability to change the direction of this country is real.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere will likely be renewed attempts to slash seniors\u2019 hard-earned Social Security and Medicare benefits and roll back the progress the Biden-Harris administration made in lowering drug prices,\u201d said Barry A. Kaufmann, President of the NYS Alliance. \u201cHowever, we are ready for the battles ahead. We will continue to work with our friends and especially with our opponents in the NYS delegation of the House to defend against all attacks on Social Security and Medicare, allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for more drugs, keep the cap on insulin prices at $35 per month for Medicare beneficiaries, and maintain the $2,000 cap on drug co-pays that is set to kick in January 1, 2025.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Immediate concerns are the push to reduce funding for the Social Security Administration. This is used to make the program less popular and more likely to be changed.\u00a0 We just came off a five-year effort to raise the Social Security age to 67. Republicans now want to increase it to 69 or 70. If they are successful, all retirees who won\u2019t reach full retirement age until 69 will see their benefits cut in their lifetime by 13%. Donald Trump has promised to stop the taxes on Social Security benefits. These taxes contributed $50.7 billion to the Social Security Trust in 2023. Trump has also promised to reduce FICA taxes or institute a FICA holiday as he did in his first term. Be aware this is a thinly disguised way of starving the Social Security Trust and just another long-term way of compromising the program. The major source of income for Social Security lies in the FICA tax of 12.4% of payroll up to $168,200 of salary. To \u201cfix\u201d Social Security we need to scrap the income cap of $168,200 and not tamper with the FICA tax.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The prospects of Medicare Advantage being made the default Medicare option or Medicare being changed to a premium support\/voucher system, which would increase costs for seniors, and cutting Medicare by making seniors pay more for premiums, co-pays or deductibles, could all be on the agenda. The Affordable Care Act could be gutted so millions of people and especially those ages 50-64 could not afford health coverage.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What can NYSARA do? We can stay informed. We can write constant letters and emails to our electeds including the opposition to let them know we are watching and WILL hold them responsible at election time. We can visit our elected representatives to keep the pressure up. We can vote like our life depends on it. \u201cWoe is me\u201d and despair over this election won\u2019t help us prevent the Draconian changes proposed, but turning up the dial on our activism, agitation and vigilance will maximize our ability to impact programs that are critical to seniors. We will prevail in the long term. NYSARA members are strong and resilient. Let\u2019s go out and become that force of nature.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 25, 2024 — By Barry A. Kaufmann, President, New York State Alliance for Retired Americans\u00a0 Editor\u2019s note: Reprinted with permission from the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"division":[],"allowed_regions":[],"allowed_divisions":[],"class_list":["post-6157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","issue-volume-42-no-9"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe 2024 Election: A Postmortem New York State Perspective - PEF Communicator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/communicator.pef.org\/issue\/volume-42-no-9\/the-2024-election-a-postmortem-new-york-state-perspective\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 2024 Election: A Postmortem New York State Perspective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"November 25, 2024 — By Barry A. 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