Editorial director Anita Jain reflects on how caring for her aging father shined a light on significant gaps in America's elder care safety net.

In the days since Donald Trump was reelected president, we’ve been subjected to news of the president-elect’s Cabinet choices, each one a harbinger of some disaster in the making: a defense secretary issuing orders to a military to attack private citizens; an attorney general weaponizing the state to go after political enemies based on grudges; a national intelligence director working in tandem with the world’s most ruthless despots.  

These are just the routine nominations. President Trump is also planning to set up the new Department of Government Efficiency, to be led by his acolytes Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, with the explicit goal of slashing $2 trillion of federal spending. With close to 35 percent of the federal budget allocated to Medicare and Social Security, one would assume that these programs, which support the country’s elderly, would be on Musk and Ramaswamy’s chopping block. Yet Trump has deemed these programs untouchable, telling AARP earlier this fall, “As you know, I was there for four years and never even thought about doing it. I’m going to do nothing to Social Security.” He similarly vowed to protect Medicare, suggesting that increased economic growth under his leadership would be enough to sustain the program. 

Trump’s disavowal that Social Security and Medicare would undergo cuts wasn’t enough to retain voters over 65, who favored him by seven points in 2016 and five points over the Democratic candidate in 2020 but were evenly split between him and Kamala Harris this year. This may be because seniors are far more attuned to the precarious future facing America’s rapidly aging population. Both Social Security and Medicare trust funds are heading toward exhaustion in a decade, and the long-term outlook for these programs is threatened by a precipitous decline in birth rates since contributions from workers fund the programs. 

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