#MAGA for Senior Trump Voters UPDATE: Kiss Meals on Wheels goodbye too, as well as...

[Miles Archer]

It breaks my heart that the average senior Trump voter probably has NO IDEA what's headed their way.



Medicare Isn’t The Only Senior Program Trump Is Likely To Mess With

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/medicare-isnt-the-only-senior-program-trump-is-likely-to-mess-with_us_583c4e87e4b000af95eeecf9

?cache=sr2rzhqhof

While most attention has been focused on what’s in store for Medicare ― the popular senior health insurance that the GOP has been eager to dismantle ― that’s not the only senior program that could get rocked to its core.

There are many programs and services funded through the Older Americans Act (OAA) that are expected to be targeted ― programs that support seniors and help them continue to live independently. Probably the best-known OAA program is Meals on Wheels, which delivers hot meals to shut-ins and is sometimes the only contact an elderly person who lives alone has with another human. There is also subsidized housing for seniors that could see revision. Caregivers may lose support, as little as there was of it. And long-term planning for the nation to meet the needs of its burgeoning older population may get cast aside ― things like developing public transportation alternatives to driving, home modification programs to allow people to age in place, research into Alzheimer’s, etc.

First to go: Traditional Medicare will be shredded when the Affordable Care Act is repealed.

As the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare noted, “destroying traditional Medicare in favor of a privatized CouponCare system is at the top of the Republican agenda.” Paul Ryan has long had the program in his sights and while President-Elect Donald Trump has sent mixed messages about what he specifically plans to do, his standard blanket answer of “it will be better” hasn’t assuaged many fears.

[msongs]

1. so what age demographic went hardest for the trumpster? nt

[flamingdem]

2. They were manipulated really well and millenials

didn't show up to counter that though it's their future that will be mangled.

[world wide wally]

3. So much for the idea of getting wiser with age

They probably liked the idea about pussy grabbing

[TeamPooka]

4. Grayson was right. Republicans wants us all to die. nt

[meow2u3]

16. No one wanted to hear what Grayson had to say

Especially if it was the truth. The people seemed too enthralled by the siren song of the Trumpanzee to care about the truth.

We have been trying to warn the people about the Orange Menace, but they didn't care to listen to us. I guess they'll have to learn the hard way--not only when it's too late, but also by taking us, who knew better than to fall for a con job, with them.

[MFM008]

5. He's a maggot

I'm sorry for the ones who need the benefits or die that voted against him or are to addled to care.
I know after my mom has a heart failure episode she gets confused for a while.

[ribrepin]

6. Not all seniors voted for him

I'm of medicare age and need the healthcare. Ryan's medicare plan would bankrupt us. We have enough to live on between Social Security, some retirement from employers and a small 401 K. There isn't a lot disposable income and we have our house and cars paid off.

[Silver Gaia]

7. Yeah, I hear that.

I guess the only older folks who will be OK are rich ones, like Trump, if they have their way. The rest of us... ???

[ribrepin]

9. Recently joined AARP

Not for the trip bargains - we don't take any. I made it clear when I joined that I was preparing for the coming fight on medicare.

It pisses me off that we prepared as much as possible for retirement and now they want to change the rules. I also want my children to have medicare when they are ready for retirement.

[dae]

10. I'm in the same boat, my wife and I will be 65 next year but have 9 years left on

the mortgage. We both voted for Clinton after Sen. Sanders lost the primary.

[Miles Archer]

11. That's why I was extremely careful to use the term "senior TRUMP VOTERS"...and not "seniors."

...because the heart of what I posted here is that I've known a number of "fixed income" seniors (no nest egg whatsoever, living check-to-check) who may or may not have owned their homes, but had very strict routines and budgets and just sort of hoped they would get from one day to the next without getting sick (or sicker, for those who were already fighting ailments).

And because of that, I understand the level of "Christmas in July / the Easter Bunny is real" jubilation that comes with deciding to trust someone who is promising to make life better and remove all of your fears.

They made the mistake of trusting him. I don't care about the levels of arrogance and self-righteousness some of them displayed while doing so, I understood it. If I thought you were going to help me conquer the greatest fears of my advancing years, I'd sing your praises too.

For many seniors, it becomes a slow walk down the road of looking for someone to trust...doctors who will heal you, pastors who won't rob you blind, blood relatives who won't abandon you. Trump stood in the middle of that road, pointing to his now-extinct metaphorical Trump Steaks, and beckoned them to the table.

And he lied. About all of it. Take a look at the other thread I posted earlier, in which Bernie Sanders Tweeted a snippet of campaign footage from Trump promising that he would not let the Republicans blow up Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security.

[n2doc]

12. Great point

Given how so many are locked into a Fox News/Rush Limbaugh world, I wonder how many will understand how these changes are a direct result of voting R? I have my doubts.

[yuiyoshida]

8. Republicans are monsters

They may as well start digging mass graves and throw the senior population in after a mass execution, because this is what they want to happen. Not only starve seniors, but take away any chance for medical help they might need.

Theses greedy bastards might get their civil war, when people start to die on a massive scale. Because good people will stand up and fight for all our basic human rights.

[montana_hazeleyes]

13. This is another reason why

I wonder why so many here are supporting certain Trump voters.

They don't give a damn what trump is doing to hurt and kill so many, but we're supposed to care so much about them! I care about all, but they don't.

What's going on here at DU?

[mythology]

15. Because we need some of those voters to win elections?

If more of them had voted for Clinton and other Democrats, we wouldn't be in this position. If we reject them all how do we win elections with 70% white voters where we only win 31% of white male voters?

[Miles Archer]

17. Big difference between supporting Trump voters versus supporting a vote for Trump

The "alt-right," white supremacist crowd? Lost cause. And the reason for that a Democrat will never hire a guy like Steve Bannon to be front-and-center in their administration, so they will never vote for a Democrat, because they will never hear the "Make America White Again" dog whistle a guy like Bannon sends out.

The seniors?

I'm not a senior yet, but I'm also not a kid, and I know first-hand that a degree of stubbornness comes with age and knowing that you're "right." Some seniors are going to be shocked at what Trump has been doing all along, right under their noses, while they chose to believe the opposite. That segment of seniors is going to be sitting in the middle of the ocean, drowning, and begging for a life raft. They may never equate that to Trump being Trump. They may say that people like Paul Ryan and the people Trump is filling his Cabinet with "wouldn't let him do his job." But you will have a few different kinds of seniors reacting to this.

"Some" seniors actually are filthy rich. They won't care, because even though they may take a hit in some areas, and that will be offset by President Trump making America great again by promising to keep all of his other promises that were never promises to begin with.

"Some" seniors will get badly hurt by this and will still potentially blame everyone but Trump.

"Some" seniors will know the cost of their vote and will be open to shifting the balance of power back to Democrats.

I'm not a fan of profiling on DU, so for me, "what's going on" on this site is a matter of what I contribute and my interactions with others.

Since the Primaries, I have posted well beyond a shitload of articles about people like Paul Ryan, positioning themselves to do exactly what they are doing right now, and most of those posts were met with hardly any response at all. That's OK, I kept posting, because it was factual information and it was important.

Now we are seeing daily posts on Trump, Ryan, Trump's Cabinet picks, and what is on the horizon for tax cuts, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Part of me asks "Where the hell were you folks six months ago when I was posting this stuff and you had nothing to say about it?

But it doesn't matter to me, because now it seems like it is all slowly sinking in, and as a result, whatever effort put into posts that no one read is worth it, because they are reading them now.

I can't...and won't...speak for anyone else here.

I saw all of this shit coming months ago. It's not because I am gifted or smarter or more insightful than anyone else.

I saw it, I posted it, and now more people are seeing it and posting it.

That's why, when making the choice between trying to reason with Trump voters or simply saying "Fuck 'em, they did this to themselves, hope they enjoy it," we have the choice of seeing it as black and white or as all of the shades of grey in between.

And I only want to "understand" them to the point where they cop to "I fucked UP." If they can't or won't see that, even in light of what Trump is doing before he takes office, I have no time for them.

[PRETZEL]

14. This is very unfortunate

This is flying directly against the prevailing thought of doing everything needed to keep seniors in their homes and maintaing active community involvement. I know Pennsylvania has been strongly committed to this initiative.

The ripple effect of having seniors spending more of their limited incomes on needed services ultimately forces them into Medical Assistance programs when it is not necessary. This could easily result in many people who have level of care determinations as nursing facility eligible but have the means to thrive in their homes and communities being driven back into those facilities.