ShAARP Session: Observations from AARP

There are 3 days left until Election Day, and we here at ShAARP Session thought it appropriate to conduct a little countdown while we're impatiently awaiting for the big day to arrive.

Each day, we'll give you a different issue and lay out both candidate's position. Last time we brought you candidate positions on the economy. Today's issue: health care.

McCain's Proposals:

• Replacing personal tax exclusion for employer-provided health insurance with a $2,500 tax credit ($5,000 for families) to help people buy their own insurance.

• Expanding health savings accounts for families to use tax-free dollars to pay for health care.

• Allowing individuals to buy any plan available, regardless of state of residence.

• Lowering drug costs by allowing reimportation of less-expensive drugs from Canada and other developed nations.

• Using information technology to reduce health care system administrative costs for billing.

Obama's Proposals:

• Making affordable and quality coverage available to everyone who wants it through a combination of private insurance and expanded public plans covering essential medical services that include preventive, maternity and mental health care.

• Requiring employers to provide health insurance to workers or pay a percentage of their payroll to finance new public programs, with company plans reimbursed for a portion of the cost of catastrophic illness or injury.

• Holding costs down by allowing people to choose from a pool of competing private plans and one public plan similar to Medicare.

• Requiring that all children have health insurance, with costs subsidized by repealing President Bush's tax cuts for households earning more than $250,000.

• Allowing children up to age 25 to get coverage under their family health insurance.

• Lowering costs through greater use of information technology.

• Allowing the reimportation of safe, lower-cost prescription medicines from Canada and other developed countries. This information was gleaned from AARP's Decision 2008 Matchups. Choose wisely!

Cookie Monster attended the Obama rally in Des Moines on Halloween and donned a Divided We Fail gear! He handed out Champ stickers (not cookies) to the delight of many in attendance. He also talked to hundreds of people at the rally about Divided We Fail. He explained how a blue donkey + a red elephant = a purple "Champ" and how it is important to work together to break the gridlock on health care and financial security issues.

Jay Hardenbrook, Program Coordinator in the AARP Missouri office sent me this note just moments ago:

"Lines for on-site absentee voting in Kansas City, MO are causing voters to wait between two and a half and four hours to vote absentee."

It's tough out there folks...bring a blanket, some water and a snack..whatever you have to do to get out there and vote!

It's the latest rage in entertaining guests and also a great way to make some cash. I'm talking, of course, about gold parties. Generally speaking, a gold dealer will coordinate with a homeowner to invite a bunch of guests over who then trade their unwanted gold jewelry in for cold hard cash. Gold parties can be a good method of fattening your wallet in tough economic times, but be careful before signing up. There are lots of opportunities for scams here. Be sure to know the purity of the gold you are dealing with (how many karats). Also, use due diligence in ensuring that you are working with a real gold broker and that there isn't any funny business in how they weigh and price the gold. You can certainly make a pile of cash at a gold party, just keep in mind that everyone is looking to make a profit here and not all people go about that honestly.

Election Day is fast approaching. Here on ShAARP Session our goal is to keep you informed to you can make the best decision on November 4. We've already distilled for you the candidate's positions on the economy and health care. Today, we bring you candidates' dueling proposals on Social Security and Retirement. These points are drawn from AARP's Candidate Matchups.< We hope this is helpful!

McCain's Proposals

• Letting a commission take the lead in developing options, then negotiating a long-term solution that preserves the Social Security obligation to retirees while restoring the program's solvency. He promises not to cut benefits or raise taxes.

• Supplementing Social Security with personal savings accounts that can be invested in "safe and reliable index funds."

Obama's Proposals

• Protecting Social Security benefits from cuts.

• Imposing a Social Security payroll tax on salaries above $250,000.

• Maintaining the current retirement age for benefit eligibility.

• Stopping any attempts to create private Social Security investment accounts.

• Eliminating income taxes for some 7 million seniors making less than $50,000.

• Creating automatic enrollment in company 401(k)s and in IRAs for employees without company 401(k)s.

There are five days left until Election Day, and we here at ShAARP Session thought it appropriate to conduct a little countdown while we're impatiently awaiting for the big day to arrive.

Each day, we'll give you a different issue and where the candidates stand. And what better than to start today with what seems to be the most important issue of late that's plaguing all of our minds? That's right folks - the economy.

McCain says:

• The economic rescue plan should entail lowering the tax rate on people who tap their 401(k)s and IRAs after reaching age 59½, increasing allowable tax deduction from $3,000 to $15,000 for selling stocks at a loss, and cutting capital gains taxes from 15 percent to 7.5 percent for two years.
• He aims to balance the federal budget by 2013, which will be done by freezing nondefense, nonveterans discretionary spending for a year; cutting or vetoing all earmarks spending for one year; hence, providing more resources for coordinated job-training programs.
• Lastly, he's for promoting more free trade with better enforcement to ensure that the U.S. gets a fair shake.

And here's Obama:

• The economic crisis plan should include creating a foreclosure prevention fund to help secure the housing market, allow penalty-free withdrawals of up to $10,000 from IRAs and 401(k)s in tax years 2008 and 2009, and give a $3,000 business tax credit for each new job creating in the U.S. in 2009-2010.
• He plans to increase the minimum wage and strengthen the right to union organizing.
• He wants to expand career retraining and financial assistance features of trade-adjustment assistance to service industries and offer assistance to workers in economic sectors vulnerable to dislocation.
• He wants to create a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank which would invest $60 billion over the next 10 years to rebuild roads, bridges and sewer and water systems, and in effect, create new jobs.

Both candidates have been adamant in saying there are serious differences in their plans on the domestic and global economy, which you can obviously see here. And when the winner is announced on Tuesday, it'll be our job to hold them to their promise to begin lifting our economy out of its hole.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's countdown issue!

In just the latest chapter in the story of our troubled economy, the Federal Reserve agreed to provide loans to America's ailing auto industry yesterday. At this point we're all sick of hearing about another industry that needs us to bail it out of trouble, but let's take a look at what is really happening here.

The first thing to keep in mind is that American auto-makers were in a bad way long before the economy went down the tubes. We had yet to see the worst of this economic downturn when it was already becoming clear that G.M. was going to lose its claim to the title of the world's largest auto-maker to Toyota.

The frozen credit market and nose-diving stock market took a bad situation and made it that much worse. The Big Three (Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford) were largely barred from access to credit meaning they couldn't provide car loans to potential buyers. Between pre-existing problems and the new realities of the economy, even some serious penny-pinching couldn't bring profits back to Detroit.

Now thanks to this perfect storm of financial ruin, the American automotive industry has seen its life flashing before its eyes. They've gotten approval for new loans and G.M. and Chrysler are in talks of a merger. If you're wondering why you should care, here are a few stats courtesy of CNN/Money's Chris Isidore:

- 10 jobs are dependant on every 1 assembly line job;
- In all, the U.S. auto industry provides 2 million jobs;
- $25 billion in loans may be costly, but the collapse of the Big Three could cost the economy $100 billion or more.

What a mess.

Not the movie...the book! By Truman Capote...prolific, controversial...however you think of him, the man inspired one of the greatest movies of all time!

USA Today wrote about the anniversary and see below for a snippet of the movie!

It's less than one week until election day, and when we will find out who the next President of the United States is going to be. It's been a long and tough road for all of us.

While you wait impatiently for the number of days to count down and then the number of votes come in, don't forget to check out AARP's Decision 2008, where you can find AARP exclusive interviews with John McCain and Barack Obama, a guide to both candidates on the issues, the latest campaign news and even contrasting views from AARP members on the election. We've got it all!

And if you haven't already seen it already, you must check out our AARP Vote 2008 video we made especially for you; it's not to be missed!

So I've already told y'all about AARP's latest effort to get out the vote. However, we're far from the only people trying to spread the message on how important it is to participate in the upcoming election. Groups like America Votes and Rock the Vote have been working on improving voter turnout. The message here is that voting is a crucial part of what makes America great and it's your biggest and best chance to make your voice heard. I could go on and on about this, but I think these kids from Atlanta's Ron Clark academy said it best:

So make sure to show up at the polls on Election Day and "you can vote however you like."

In a recent article from the Associated Press, Howard Gruenspecht, the acting chief of the Energy Information Administration, warned of the increase in cost to heat American homes this winter as compared to only a year ago. Depending on location and fuel type, some families can expect to pay more than a 20 percent increase over last winter. And, although oil prices are dropping, we won't really feel those effects until early 2009. Because you can't wait until February to purchase your oil, there are other energy saving tactics that can help you save money all year long.

It's getting cold outside, so here are some ways you can save a few bucks and become more energy efficient:

Install a programmable thermostat. You can save up to $180 a year by installing a programmable thermostat that controls the temperature of your home while you're at work or asleep.

Choose ENERGY STAR appliances. Save money and the environment by replacing standard model appliances with ones that are ENERGY STAR-qualified. ENERGY STAR-qualified appliances use 10-50 percent less energy and water than standard models.

Update your windows. ENERGY STAR-qualified windows can reduce your energy costs by $126-$465 per year when replacing single-pane windows or $27-$111 a year when replacing double-pane, clear glass windows.

Install dimmer switches and motion detectors. Dim the lights by 25 percent and save an average of 15 percent a year on energy costs, and extend the bulb life by four times.

Install a ceiling fan - and learn to correctly rotate it. Ceiling fans aren't just for when it's hot outside.

Install insulation. According to the Department of Energy, the leading cause of energy waste in the home is inadequate insulation and air leakage.

You can check your local home improvement store like Home Depot for more tips and products and also look to the Department of Energy for more information about how you can become more energy efficient.

While at Divided We Fail we relish in seeing the number of Americans who have signed our pledge grow more and more each day, the reason that number is already up to 811,994 is because there are real-life, personal human stories to back up the magnitude of health care and financial security issues in our country right now. Take Kathy, from New York, for example, who tells DWF:

"Last year at the age of 42 I was diagnosed with brain cancer. I have a six year old and a one year old. For obvious reasons, I can no longer work and my husband, who works full-time, and I are having a difficult time taking care of our family. My health insurance only covers about two-thirds of my costs (which is not terrible) but now I am trying to figure out how to pay for a live in nanny so she can help me take care of the kids, cook, clean and drive me to doctor appointments. One of us has to keep working so my husband is doing all that he can do. We were doing fine before the cancer hit but now we are floundering."

It's harrowing stories like Kathy's that wake us up as to how far-reaching these issues really go. You can hear more touching tales from your fellow Americans in our new Average American ads on YouTube.

Divided We Fail wants to hear your stories, as well! Tell us why you're making health care and financial security your top priorities for Election 2008 at http://www.capitolconnect.com/dividedwefail/reg_share.aspx. If not a story, then at the very least sign the Divided We Fail pledge at http://www.aarp.org/issues/dividedwefail.

TAGS: Divided We Fail, health care, financial security, pledge, Average American, YouTube, DWF, AARP, ShAARP Session

Divided We Fail recently teamed up with the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television to create the Stolen Dreams short film competition. Films were made by nine students covering the topics of health care and financial security and a panel of judges selected a winner. The winning film, "The Cure" was written by UCLA grad student Anthony Onah who received $7,500 along with his first prize recognition. The video can be seen here and the finalists can all be viewed here. Make sure to check them all out. These short films are all well done and have important messages about the troubling state of health care and financial security in this country.

To listen to the full interview, click play below then tell us what you think!

For more on this and other Prime Time Radio interviews click here and check out the accompanying BulletinToday news story.

This isn't good. According to a new study in North Carolina, only about half of older Medicaid recipients are receiving screening tests for colorectal, breast and cervical cancer. Being the largest provider of health insurance for minority populations, all older recipients should be getting the recommended screenings for folks their age.

C. Annette DuBard, M.D., M.P.H., of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, led the study. Because Medicaid recipients are covered for cancer screenings under Medicaid, she found that this is the primary reason why the screenings weren't actually happening:

"Lack of a screening recommendation by the physician, rather than patient refusal of recommended tests, accounted for most instances of screening delinquency . . . Efforts to increase cancer screening rates among Medicaid recipients must address patient, physician and organizational barriers to the routine identification and delivery of preventive services."

While this research was only done in North Carolina, can we predict that the same is happening for the rest of the Medicaid recipients in the country?

Crowding in hospitals is reaching record levels. With more and more people using the Emergency Room for primary care, a greater number of patients are forced to deal with diminishing resources. One tactic hospitals are taking is to house some patients in their hallways to reduce overcrowding. It is troubling to think that people with serious health conditions are being forced to stay in hallways with only a privacy screen separating them from the commotion of a busy hospital. However, studies are showing that this strategy may not have any serious medical consequences and could actually be an improvement over simply packing patients into the E.R.