Older Idahoans to Press GOP Candidates About Retirement Security

AARP Idaho volunteers seek candidates' positions on strengthening Social Security, Medicare, retirement savings and providing jobs for older workers

BOISE, Idaho, Feb. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As GOP presidential candidates swing through the Gem State they'll find many of the state's most powerful voting group, the 50+, with some serious questions on retirement security issues. 

With several GOP candidates planning rallies and events in Idaho in the coming days and weeks, AARP Idaho volunteers are set to press the candidates on their plans to strengthen Social Security and Medicare, and to help the state's 50+ get back to work.  The Idaho efforts are part of an AARP nationwide campaign to get the candidates talking about retirement security issues.

AARP is encouraging the media to ask the candidates questions about these issues so their answers can be shared with the general public before Idahoans vote.

"Idaho has the 49th lowest income in the nation, retirement security issues including jobs for 50+ Idahoans are especially important here, and we hope the GOP candidates will address them while here," said Angela Cortez, Interim State Director for AARP in Idaho.  "The debate in Washington has raged on over these issues. Now many Idahoans are looking for the candidates' positions."

In Idaho, over 260,000 (17 percent of the population) receive Social Security. For one in four, it accounts for 90 percent of their income and without it about 72,000 would fall into poverty.  More than 226,000 Idahoans count on Medicare for access to health care, ranging from prescription drugs to a visit to their doctor's office.  Roughly 6 percent of the state's 50+ residents are unemployed.

"As candidates continue to hit the campaign trail, AARP members in Idaho and across the nation will work to bring these issues front and center," Cortez said.  

According to AARP surveys of Republican voters in early primary and caucus states, the voting bloc overwhelmingly oppose cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits – which older Idahoans have worked their entire lives for and expect to be there when they need them. 

In the 2008 Presidential Election in Idaho, 53 percent of all votes came from voters aged 50 or older, in the 2010 Mid-term elections, Idaho's 50+ accounted for 65 percent of all ballots cast.

More information and the AARP GOP voter surveys can be found online: www.aarp.org/youearnedit.

For more than 25 years, AARP has been engaged in non-partisan voter education activities. AARP does not have a political action committee and does not endorse candidates or contribute to their campaigns. AARP's voter education activities are designed to encourage members and the general public to exercise their constitutional right to vote and to highlight the issues that affect Americans age 50+ and their families with the Presidential candidates and their campaigns.

AARP is Idaho's largest membership organization with more than 180,000 members.

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SOURCE AARP Idaho