Title: Senator Doug Jones is Feeling Optimistic
ANNOUNCER: It’s You Earned This, the Social Security and Medicare podcast, brought to you by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and now your host, Walter Gottlieb.
WALTER: We are less than a week away from election day, folks. And of course, we have endorsed Kamala Harris for president because she is a champion for American seniors. And as the vice president makes her closing argument to the American people, we are going to hear from a prominent Democrat about why Kamala is infinitely better for seniors and their families than one Donald J. Trump. Former Senator Doug Jones is with us today. He served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 2018 to 2021. He was the first Democratic Senator to represent that state in over two decades. He was a member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, so he knows a little something about the issues confronting American seniors.
WALTER: Welcome, Senator. How are you?
DOUG JONES: I’m doing great. Thanks for having me today.
WALTER: We are thrilled to have you. Now, you’re in Alabama right now, but you just got back from campaigning for Kamala?
DOUG JONES: Yeah, I was in Savannah this past weekend. Met with some of the voters who were doing some canvassing, some phone banking, and then did a Souls to the Poll event in Savannah this past Sunday. So, it’s a big trip.
WALTER: How did it feel there in Georgia? Do we have a shot?
DOUG JONES: I think it feels very good. I talked to a number of people, and I kind of try to talk to people off and on, during the weeks, and I feel very good about Georgia. Everything is close. There’s a lot of stuff going on. But, I just think that there’s an energy and an enthusiasm that you can’t really capture in polling. And we’re seeing record turnout, and I think ultimately, even though we’re seeing more Republicans voting early this time, I think that that levels off, and ultimately, Democrats still have a huge advantage with early turnout.
WALTER: Well, thank goodness, and thanks for that quick update. I think that we were a little nervous a couple weeks ago, but are feeling better now. Let’s talk about Kamala Harris and seniors. So, Kamala has pledged to protect Social Security and Medicare. She has advocated having the wealthy pay their fair share in payroll contributions to keep the trust fund solvent. On the other hand, the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget, not exactly a liberal group, said Trump’s policies could cost Social Security up to $2.75 trillion and speed up the depletion of the trust fund by at least three years. So the choice between these two candidates shouldn’t even be close when it comes to seniors, should it?
DOUG JONES: No, I agree with that. I think if folks do their research, Walter, one of the things that is missing from half of the equation in this campaign is really the element of truth. No one on the other side is really voicing the truth about what they think and what they feel. They’re just talking in basics and you really do have to do some research. And even when I was in the Senate from 2018 to 2021, every Donald Trump budget tried to cut Medicare, for instance. He continually talked about Social Security and Medicare being Ponzi schemes and wanting to move those over to the private sector. So all of the billionaire buddies and hedge fund managers that are out there that support him, that he’s trying to get tax breaks for, will make even more money at the expense of seniors. The choice is really incredibly clear about who is going to protect Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security going forward. And it is not Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. It’s Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Just like Democrats have been protecting it for so many years now.
WALTER: And Kamala Harris and Tim Walz both have personal experiences with parents who needed care and support. Kamala took care of her mother when her mother had cancer. And Tim Walz’s father, you probably know, passed away when Walz was 19. And he credits Social Security survivors benefits for keeping his family afloat. Is there something about these personal experiences that can shape a candidate’s appreciation of Social Security and Medicare? Because the other side doesn’t really seem to share that.
DOUG JONES: No, they don’t. You know, again, when you don’t really have to worry and depend on Social Security and Medicare for your daily subsistence, the roof over your head, for the food that you eat, for the medical care you get, when you’ve got enough money that you can take care of that without any real problem, then no, you don’t think about that in the same terms as people with backgrounds like Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. And I can tell you from the same personal experience, the issue that Kamala Harris has raised about providing benefits for home healthcare so that seniors can stay in their home without depleting what savings and equity in their home that they have, that’s a really, really big deal for so many. And that’s one of those stories that hits home to me personally, because what I saw was my parents that, like I say, my dad was in management some, but he was also a steel worker for a time. He worked hard all his life. He saved money. He wanted to leave some of that. He wanted to make sure mom was taken care of if he went first, and that they saved some for my sister and me, whatever. The same month that I announced my run for the Senate in 2017, I also had to move them out of their home because dad had developed a form of dementia in which he had to get into long-term care, and mom wanted to be close, so she was in an assisted living in the same facility. We had already seen their savings beginning to be significantly depleted with a home healthcare that was there, that was around the clock, but it wasn’t the intense medical-type care that is so expensive. So we had seen those savings deplete, and they continued to deplete. Their Social Security covered some, but only a fraction of what it cost for them once they got out of their home, and their savings just went down and down and down, and that really troubled my mom. She passed away this past December, and she would always ask me, she would always want to know, well, what do I have left? What do I have? It means so much to people to be able to have the things that they can rely on. So yeah, Walter, this is personal for so many, so many millions of Americans out there, and that’s why it is important. That’s why Tim Walz and Kamala Harris are relatable on these issues, because they have lived them, like me and so many others.
WALTER: Condolences about your mother’s passing, Senator.
WALTER: Last year. A lot of people think that Medicare already covers long-term care, but it does not. Yeah, only Medicaid covers it, and you have to impoverish yourself first, and then you may not get in-home care. You may be sent to a nursing home. So I’m glad you mentioned her proposal about Medicare, because she also proposed to expand Medicare to include hearing and vision coverage, which is something we have been fighting for forever. We almost got it with Build Back Better, but we know what happened there. Why is it so important that those benefits be added, finally?
DOUG JONES: Because everyone, once you start getting to a certain age, you’re going to have vision and hearing issues. It is incredibly rare that someone, once they get into their golden years, doesn’t have those issues, and they would have those issues and be otherwise as healthy as they can be with not that much medical expenses. But hearing and vision goes. We all know that. And the critical thing about that, Walter, is that if people can’t afford to make sure they can see or hear, that not only would their quality of life go down in their senior years, but their life expectancy will go down. It has been proven now statistically that those who maintain hearing aids and are able to get those and maintain that good hearing, they’re less likely to get dementia. So the quality of life, the longevity of life, and overall health benefits, I think we’re finally recognizing is tied to your eyesight and your hearing. And that’s why it only makes sense that if the government is going to provide and do the things that have been promised to our seniors, that our seniors have paid for over the years, that those be included. They’re just as important as the cardiovascular or the kidney disease treatments that people get. Because it’s going to affect everyone.
WALTER: Amen to that and, of course, many, many health experts have backed up what you were just saying about the importance of hearing and vision care to seniors’ health and safety. And of course, Senator, one of the Biden-Harris administration’s biggest achievements was the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. For seniors, the law does a lot of things, but for seniors, the law is lowering prescription drug costs and that is huge. Kamala has promised to build on the reforms of the Inflation Reduction Act if she is elected. But do you think enough senior voters out there recognize that this law is saving them significant money at the drug counter and will increasingly continue to do so?
DOUG JONES: I think the latter part is the key there. I think folks are beginning to see that, yes, they’re, they’re seeing a difference here and I think they’re taking notice of it. What they may not be seeing, is that there are going to be benefits that are going to be coming their way in the future. What happened with the Inflation Reduction Act is just the beginning. There was only there was a subset in insulin being capped and the Medicare being able to negotiate for prescription drugs. It was this subset, but it was the only the beginning, and what I suspect, is that there was such a resistance to that from Republicans, but all of a sudden, I believe that in the next five to ten years it’s going to be like some other things and they’re going to think we’ve got to support this, we’ve got to be on board, because the seniors across the country are going to feel it, the importance of it, their constituencies are going to feel it. But it was Biden-Harris and now, hopefully in the next four years, the Harris administration that’s really going to kick it into high gear to help seniors and build that base and that platform for generations to come.
WALTER: That’s a great point. And just last month, they announced the first ten prices of life-saving drugs whose prices were negotiated between Medicare and Big Pharma. Big Pharma has been fighting this tooth and nail every step of the way, but they are at the negotiation table because that’s the law right now and that is thanks to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, right?
DOUG JONES: Yeah, that’s, that’s exactly right. And and and folks need to remember that capping the insulin was a big, big deal. And what was really important on that is not just for seniors, but now there are companies that are beginning to do that anyway for non-seniors, for just general health insurance. Folks may look and say, well, I don’t take those drugs, or I might take one, and so they may not see it. But this is just the beginning. This is going to take off, I think, just like Social Security did, just like Medicare did, so that it becomes an integral part of that safety net that seniors have been paying for their entire working career.
WALTER: And it’s quite historic. And it also reminds me of the Affordable Care Act, which there was tremendous opposition by Republicans at first and a lot of demagoguery, but now it’s a fact of life, right?
DOUG JONES: Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are still saying they’re gonna get rid of it. When I was in the Senate, after john McCain’s famous, thumbs down, and it was done, and then I got elected. That made it impossible for them to bring it back up in the Senate. They could never get the votes in that remaining Senate, and then we flipped the the House. So it was not a deal. But now Donald Trump, every time he talks about his health care concepts, remember he doesn’t really have a plan, only ideas and concepts. Well, one of his concepts is to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. They’re still gonna try it, make no mistake. Take him at his word. For all of those out there who were able to get health insurance based on the ACA, it is in jeopardy if Donald Trump and J.D. Vance get elected.
WALTER: So that’s 50 million Americans who would roughly, who would lose coverage, and the ACA did great things for near seniors who are not old enough for Medicare as well. So it’s an issue for older people as well as younger people.
DOUG JONES: That’s right.
WALTER: Well, finally, Senator, let’s talk about the congressional election. So we have a political action committee here at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, that is not only endorsed Kamala, but many candidates on the House and Senate side. Obviously, like you probably, we’re a little nervous when we see these key Senate races being so close and and where you have candidates like Tammy Baldwin versus Eric Hovde or Jon Tester versus Tim Sheehy. You’ve got these folks, these Democrats, who are on the side of working people very clearly and running against millionaires who are on the side of financial elites. Two questions. Why do you think it’s so close despite that? And also why is it so important to seniors that Democrats hang on to the Senate?
DOUG JONES: I think to some extent that it is close only because the country is divided politically more than I’ve in my 70 years ever witnessed it. It’s just really remarkable. And people tend to at least huge chunks of the electorate vote for their team. They don’t they don’t go beyond that. They don’t see that. And some of those states like Montana has changed some. But at the end of the day, I think that there is still a very good chance. I’m going to be a little bit more bullish than most people about the Senate. It’s amazing to me that the playbook, the candidate recruitment playbook for Republican Senate candidates these days is you got to be a wealthy billionaire that lives in another state other than the one that you’re running for office. It’s incredible, just absolutely incredible. But here’s the here’s the bottom line for me. We have such better candidates, so much better candidates, whether it’s Tammy in Wisconsin, Bobby Casey in Pennsylvania, Ruben Gallego in Arizona, Jackie Rosen in Nevada, Tester in Montana. You can go on and on. I’m a bullish because I I think we’ve got better candidates. And I put some faith in the people in those states who will see through the billionaires because the billionaires that are running for office in those states are going to be working for their billionaire buddies. They’re not going to be working for those working folks.
WALTER: Well, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves. And of course, our CEO, Max Richtman, has been out in Arizona and Montana and Wisconsin multiple times appearing with those candidates. So we’re doing everything we can. I actually feel better after talking to you, Senator. Just over these 15 minutes, I’m a little more bullish now, too.
DOUG JONES: Well, let’s let’s make no mistake now. We still need people to get out and vote. We need still and we we still need people to get folks and take them to the polls. Talk to friends. I heard somebody yesterday I was at an event for our second congressional district, which we’re going to flip, by the way. And the thing is, what was said was if you go vote alone, you’re not doing it the right way. Take somebody with you. Go go as a group and get folks out to vote. We can’t let up.
WALTER: No. And we definitely agree with that. Who was that candidate, by the way, that that we’re going to flip the seat?
DOUG JONES: That was Shomari Figures. He comes from a family of public servants. His dad was, his mom is still currently. Shomari has worked on the Hill. He’s worked at the White House. And now he’s come back home and he’ll be a great congressman.
WALTER: So Shomari, who we endorse, by the way, is not even a billionaire. He’s a working guy.
DOUG JONES: No, no, he’s not. He is a public servant. He is a public servant.
WALTER: That’s what it should be all about is public service, not enriching the already rich. Senator, this has been a pleasure. You’ve given us a little injection of optimism, but we keep telling people, make a plan to vote and execute it. There’s a number of ways to vote. Just do it.
DOUG JONES: Yep, that’s exactly right. Just I tell folks all the time, Walter, remember, there’s so many that on this podcast that probably remember my election in December 2017. Remember how you felt that night. Let’s get that feeling again on November 5th and 6th this year.
WALTER: We were as elated that night as we are disappointed in your successor in every way imaginable.
DOUG JONES: I understand.
WALTER: OK, Senator, well, thank you very much.
DOUG JONES: Thank you. Appreciate it.
WALTER: And if you haven’t voted yet, make a plan to vote now. This election is too important to sit out. And you know where we stand. If you want to see the list of candidates our Political Action Committee has endorsed, visit ncpssm.org/pac. That’s ncpssm.org/pac. Also, check out our Legislative Scorecard to see how your members of Congress stack up on Social Security and Medicare at ncpssm.org/scorecard. Remember, you earned these benefits, and you earned this!