Printable Version
September 18, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE Contact:
Michael Buckley 202-330-1913
September 18,
2005 Amy
Buffenbarger 301-275-3356
Alliance for Retired Americans
Condemns White House “Whitewash” on Aging
Report
The following statement was issued today by Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans.
The final report of the White House Conference on Aging received by conference delegates last week is a missed opportunity for a fair and balanced look at the social and economic concerns of our nation’s seniors.
This self-serving political document does not accurately reflect the Conference proceedings. For example, nowhere is it mentioned that a vast majority of the delegates opposed the Bush plan to privatize Social Security. Similarly, the delegates’ support for major changes to Medicare Part D disappears in this White House whitewash. The strongest delegate support was for comprehensive drug coverage under Medicare with the government negotiating lower drug prices. However, this was bundled together with several other recommendations in the report.
The White House Conference on Aging was charged with developing policy recommendations for the President and Congress for the next ten years. Shamefully, the Administration ran the Conference in a way that squelched meaningful debate, used flawed voting processes to distort the views of Conference delegates, and relegated many important policy recommendations to hard-to-find appendices of the report.
President Bush, who chose to become the first President to miss his own aging conference, was once again isolated from the troubling realities facing millions of older Americans.
The final report of the White House Conference on Aging was a failed attempt to silence seniors’ voices. Grassroots activists of the Alliance for Retired Americans will not rest in demanding that our elected officials take bold steps to address the social and economic conditions of our nation’s seniors.
The Alliance for Retired Americans will release its own report on the conference in the near future.
For more information on the Alliance, visit www.retiredamericans.org
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The Alliance for
Retired Americans is a national organization
that advocates for the rights and well being of
America’s retirees and their families.