GBONEWS: Pres. Obama’s White House Selfie on Aging?–July 13
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations
June 24, 2015 — Volume 15, Number 9
Editor’s Note: GBO News, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generation publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. Send your news of important stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. You can subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge simply by sending a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. You’ll receive the table of contents as e-mail, just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org.
SPECIAL ISSUE: GBONews will return soon with our usual array of new books, The storyboard of recent articles, “Gen Beatles News” on reporters’ doings, “Good Sources’ and, always much, much more. But the sudden announcement of July 13 as the once-a-decade White House Conference on Aging promoted this overview for reporters as a backgrounder on this conference. I hope you find it helpful.
By Paul Kleyman
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Nora Super seemed nonplused, struggling for an answer. Confronting the executive director of the 2015 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA), set for July 13,during a recent meeting on diversity in aging was Paul Nathanson. For decades a leading legal-eagle protecting the rights of low-income elders, Nathanson stated he was “shocked” that recommended actions in the conference’s draft briefing paper on retirement security fails to mention safeguards for the most vulnerable aging populations, such as older women of color.
Although the WHCoA’s draft “Retirement Security Policy Brief” actually does outline the stresses facing ethnic elders and others on the edge of poverty and generally does call for strengthening Social Security, Nathanson, a founder of Justice in Aging (until recently the National Senior Citizens Law Center), is among a range of experts and advocates in aging expressing dismay over how the conference is taking shape. And reporters on issues of aging and retirement should be paying attention to this further fissure between this Democratic President and the Democratic wing of his party.
This week, in fact, a coalition of nearly 20 leading progressive advocacy and media organizations are circulating an online petition calling on the WHCoA “to include Social Security expansion as a key piece of your policy agenda.” Among those initiating the petition are Social Security Works (SSW), the Economic Policy Institute, Daily Kos, The Nation, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Medicare Rights Center and People for the American Way. SSW and the labor-backed Alliance for Retired Americans have posted issue guides that reporters might find helpful to scan to get a quick sense of the range of issues on retirement security.
It may seem inexplicable that a Democratic president would avoid proposals to strengthen Social Security, his party’s benchmark achievement, especially to improve the paltry sums accruing to the most destitute seniors, such as very old women and ethnic elders. But the briefing paper only centers on such actions as President Obama’s current tax reforms and other initiatives leaning heavily on private-savings vehicles, while hardly mentioning long-debated reforms for bolstering Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for those in abject poverty. In the wake of Obama’s battle with labor and the left over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, one might think at least acknowledging these gut-level progressive issues would be the safe play to make. Go figure.
Nathanson, for instance, was particularly agitated that the White House did not devote a word to SSI, the subject of a congressional effort backed by progressive headliners like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, to update the program for the first time in more than 30 years. Those who qualify for SSI today may receive up to the grand sum of $733. (Some states add to this federal maximum, but only very modestly.)
Why Reporters Should Care
For reporters on the generations beat, the White House’s policy briefs summarize only four main discussion topics for this once-in-10-years conference and actually provide an excellent overview of those issues–retirement security, healthy aging, elder justice and long-term services and supports. But experts and advocates in aging have been concerned and even disturbed at significant omissions that might prompt policy debate and action among decision makers, not to mention public exposure of these issues through media coverage.
Beyond the descriptions of policy issues in the briefing papers, the initiatives outlined in those same papers focus narrowly on important, but incremental measures by the Obama administration, such as some demonstrations and initiatives included in the Affordable Care Act, or proposals in the president’s 2016 budget. More than one authority in the field of aging has urged the White House to “seize” the once-a-decade opportunity of the conference to present a broader vision beyond limited help for “seniors.” As another expert put it, the president should use the WHCoA to “dream big – set table” for broader discussions across generations about why they should engage in these issues.
Many have also been unhappy about the abruptly short timing of the WHCoA, making planning for participation or coverage more difficult. In spite of a year of planning and five official regional preconference gatherings held around the country last spring, the date of the 2015 WHCoA—July 13—was only announced on May 28, less than six weeks before the one-day program. Others in recent decades have been held over two or three days. Also, for 2015, both public and press involvement are being heavily restricted.
Like other White House conferences over the past century—historically bipartisan gatherings with extensive participation by Congress and governors–the one on aging has been a decennial assembly of experts in the field to focus on policy initiatives and reforms for the coming decade. The WHCoA began in 1961, although it was preceded in 1951, when President Harry Truman hosted a more limited meeting of leaders in the then-emerging realms of gerontology and geriatric medicine. This year’s edition is much scaled down in both scope and, evidently, direct media access, unlike those in 1995, and even 2005.
A primary reason for the miniaturized 2015 program is that unlike past programs, Congress failed this time to allocate funds for what has been, again, a bipartisan conclave. So the Obama administration has gone it more or less alone. But many in the field have expressed disappointment over the President’s narrow framing of the issues for discussion, at the event’s very late timing, and at its highly prescribed format precluding much delegate interaction and leaning heavily on social media.
That is, only a small number of delegates are being invited to view the staged speeches and panels at the White House–unlike past events held in larger hotel venues. Moreover, in-person media will mainly be limited to “credentialed” reporters, according to WHCoA Deputy Communications Director Rachel Maisler [Rachel.Maisler@WHAging.gov].
Maisler e-mailed on June 19 (nearly three weeks prior to the event), “Unfortunately, at this time we aren’t accepting media RSVPs. The White House will issue specific press guidance closer to the event. That being said, I’m keeping a list of names and contact info of credentialed media who are interested in attending.”
She e-mailed later that day in a follow-up, “As you have heard, this WHCoA is going to be very different from its predecessors. We only have a limited amount of space in the room, and the White House will be handling RSVPs. Reporters are always welcome to e-mail me their questions. At this time, we do not have a press briefing scheduled. I will let you know if plans change.”
Reporters, Ask ’Em Where They Ain’t
GBO’s concern is that age-beat journalists around the country, often more knowledgeable about the issues than most reporters in the credentialed Washington press-corps pack, only will get to watch through online streaming or by sitting in on local “Watch Parties.” They’ll be submitting questions to Maisler, but it’s uncertain whether they’ll be able to ask unfiltered questions of the president or other speakers from attendees or viewer. They will have to raise questions via Twitter or Facebook—tools still largely unavailable to many Americans over age 65. And it remains to be heard whether questions from reporters around the country who are well informed on issues in aging will be addressed.
That’s why generations-beat reporters need, as a ballplayer once said, to “Keep your eye on the ball and hit ’em where they ain’t.” That is, heavily question the gap between the White House’s surface rhetoric advancing this year’s program and what those on the front lines of aging say needs to be done. Reporters should be in touch with prominent experts who have been wrestling over significant exclusions and omissions—all while President Obama has been preparing for major media exposure for his July 13 speech.
It’s not that the administration wants to completely short-circuit reporting. Far from it: According to Super, the morning program will partly emphasize “getting media attention, so there will be a lot of sort of high-profile people that will be speaking about the issues to the President. And some of the meatier, more substantive work will be in the afternoon.”
Her office will also issue final policy papers on June 13, which Super said would reflect comments and recommendations by people like Nathanson from around the country. The WHCoA website currently displays many comments on the four initial policy briefs.
Historically, the aim of the WHCoA has been to gather expertise across professional disciplines and the political spectrum in the spirit of civil debate and try to yield some consensus on key issues for public and private action in the coming decade aimed at establishing or improving, as the White House stated earlier this year, “programs that represent America’s commitment to older Americans.”
Eric Kingson, a professor at Syracuse University and a founding head of the progressive Social Security Works and Strengthen Social Security Coalition, explained, “While unlikely that this year’s conference will see the fruits of its labor enacted into sweeping policy change in the near term, it could play an important agenda-setting role for future congresses and presidents of conference planners and delegates.”
Kingson coauthored one of the articles in the special issue devoted to the WHCoA just published jointly by the Gerontological Society of America’s journals The Gerontologist and Public Policy & Aging Report. They are now available at no charge. The issue constitutes a handy course on the issues and may help arm reporters with the bases for many questions.
Backstory: Decades of Accomplishments and Adversity
The first official WHCoA, held in January 1961, was presided over by the newly inaugurated President John F. Kennedy and also addressed by the outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The event is widely regarded as having added momentum to the eventual passage in 1965–in the wake of the Kennedy assassination–of Medicare, Medicaid and the Older Americans Act.
Old timers in the old-age field say that in 1971, President Richard M. Nixon arrived at the conference with little interest in programs for seniors, but found himself moved enough by personal stories he heard from delegates to sign the 1972 amendments to the Social Security Act implementing automatic cost of living adjustments.
President Ronald Reagan approached his 1981 WHCoA at an arm’s-length and clumsily tried to manipulate the delegate assignments to exclude debate by ardent progressives, in particular Democratic Rep. Claude Pepper of Florida, known as Congress’s vigorous champion of the aged. Conference organizers tried to exclude Pepper from conference deliberations on Social Security, which Reagan hoped until then to cut the government program sharply.
But the White House handled the maneuver so poorly, that Pepper reaped national headlines for crashing the income-security meeting and making a rousing speech for protecting the program. Characteristically, Reagan reacted by showing up unexpectedly (whether he’d speak had been uncertain until then) at the conference and declaring victory. It is said that the experience helped sink his privatization ambitions for Social Security and precipitated what became the 1983 “Greenspan Commission,” chaired by Alan Greenspan. The commission would institute major bipartisan reforms in Social Security. (Thanks mainly to a deal cut by House Speaker Tip O’Neill and White House Chief of Staff James Baker.)
Although 1991 passed, with George H.W. Bush ducking the senior lobby by not calling a conference. In 1995, though, President Bill Clinton once again proved he’s never met a crowd he didn’t love. At that year’s WHCoA, GBO’s editor was proud to be appointed as one only two working journalists chosen among the 2,250 delegates at the Washington Hilton. (The other one was Hugh Downs, which was swell to learn, but humbling.)
More importantly, a group of reporters worked with WHCoA Executive Director Bob Blancato to see that press credentials were open to age-beat writers from around the country. The conference even hosted a welcoming reception for reporters that year. Better yet, there was a well-run pressroom operation throughout the event. We heard from the president–who focused much of his rhetoric that week on his combat with House Speaker Newt Gingrich over the future of Medicare–from VP Al Gore (twice), and First Lady Hillary Clinton, who deftly moderated a panel on breast cancer.
The May 1995 program was structured around facilitated small-group sessions over the two-and-a-half days. These were intense, wide-ranging, and culminated in a delegate vote yielding 50 top-ranked issues to be sent to Congress.
Leading up to the conference and on the plane to DC, I recall poring over the fat briefing book sent to all delegates–with clearly written discussions outlining a broad span of issues–vastly more than the four limited topics for 2015. Not only did delegates vote on resolutions for legislative action drafted in advance by the WHCoA advisory committee and staff, but delegates were invited to present new proposals. These could be included for the final vote to determine the top 50 issues, if a resolution’s sponsors could get a certain minimum number of other delegates to sign on.
In the end, the 50 top vote getters were gleaned from a list of about 100 issues. The process was rangy, with delegates caucusing in hallways of the Hilton. There were confrontations: Two delegates, the pioneering LGBT advocates Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, successfully led a fight to reinstate the inclusion of gays and lesbians that had been excised by a nervous White House from resolutions promoting greater diversity. For all of the hallway buttonholing and speechifying, the conference left most delegates with an exhausting, but exhilarating sense of democracy in action.
The December 2005 WHCoA, held in nine-degree weather, had half the 1995 delegates–still over 1,000–and ran for two days at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. President George W. Bush, less brave than President Reagan, made no effort to address the delegate, and the delegate process was more regulated than a decade before. Oddly, that happened even though most delegates were appointed by Republicans (the W administration, members of Congress and governors). Bush actually slighted his own conference that week by making an appearance at a nearby Virginia retirement home.
But, again, the WHCoA yielded broad range of policy recommendations with active input from many quarters. And both the 1995 and 2005 programs yielded extensive documents on a spectrum of issues in aging.
Unmentioned Issues Worth Mentioning
So, the arms-length relationship between presidents and their aging delegates is not new. At this point, though, the White House of President Barak Obama is so limiting his leadership and legacy on the longevity revolution that the 2015 policy drafts exclude such compelling issues, besides strengthening Social Security and SSI, as end-of-life care, unmentioned in the initial briefing drafts; transportation, increasingly seen as a barrier to healthy aging; immigration; housing, especially in urban areas under stress of gentrification; and numerous other vital concerns.
Stunning analysis in recent years showing the life-expectancy gap between those with lower or higher educational levels– 10 years between black and white men and between under-educated and college-educated white women give new meaning to the phrase lifelong learning, yet is unmentioned in the advance WHCoA papers.
Progressive policy advocates have long felt President Obama to be strangely adverse to the needs of his older constituents. Social Security Works’ Eric Kingson notes that since Obama’s 2007 campaign, the White House website has declined to include older Americans on its list of about 25 listed groups looked to for special support, such as women, religious groups and environmentalist. Kingson added, “Seniors for Obama was nowhere to be found on this list. Instead, seniors were assigned to the Issues” section of the website under Seniors and Social Security.”
At this juncture, the WHCoA staff is promising a much more inclusive set of policy papers for day-of release, maybe documents that will go beyond the president’s standard talking-points on these concerns. GBONews hopes so. But journalists on the generations beat should be lining up questions both for the president’s staff and leaders in the field of aging, including in your local area. Without significant attention to the many issues in this age of longevity, factors that have historically been telescoped through the WHCoA lens, the 2015 conference might prove to be nothing more than Mr. Obama’s White House Selfie on Aging.
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Ruth Taber, MSPH
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