Editorial: Cutting the clatter on two entitlements

Medicare and Social Security are more like cousins than twins, but together the programs are forming one of the chief topics of conversation for the coming election campaign.

Unfortunately, in an atmosphere of vast uncertainty and wild speculation, all spewed out like spores instantaneously on the Internet, misinformation abounds about both, and all too often misdirected passions interfere with the ability to reach reasoned and effective solutions.

So, is the American Association for Retired Persons, an organization with a clear parochial interest and positions already well documented, the right group to trust in cutting through the clatter? Actually, maybe so.

The AARP program launched this summer, called “You’ve Earned a Say”, has a lofty and important mission — to promote more public involvement, and more-productive public involvement, in two of the most important political debates of the day. Through brochures and an interactive website, the project offers opportunities for people to participate in a national conversation about Social Security and Medicare, and features a point-by-point discussion from all sides on specific Medicare and Social Security proposals under discussion.

AARP executives spoke with the Daily Herald editorial board recently and emphasized that the “You’ve Earned a Say” drive has a distinctly different mission from their typical efforts to influence government. This project, they said, is not meant to persuade, but to inform — and to invite.

The centerpiece of the effort are two separate booklets outlining pros and cons on each of 12 proposals for dealing with Social Security and 15 proposals for Medicare. Importantly, the analysts providing support or opposition for each given proposal are not AARP staff but representatives of partisan agencies like the right-leaning Heritage Foundation and left-leaning Brookings Institute, and the analysts are clearly identified so you can judge for yourself the credibility of their position.

One of the most remarkable features of the presentation is its tone. This is not one of those cable television point-counterpoint screaming matches staged more for entertainment than edification. The AARP publications lay out each suggestion, then provide a succinct, nonemotional assessment from each of the differing sides.

Then, and this may be the most valuable component of the entire exercise, it offers you the opportunity to contribute your own thoughts and ideas to the conversation.

The AARP officials acknowledged that the organization will continue to review Social Security, Medicare and other issues of importance to older Americans and lobby assertively for positions it considers important. But whatever activities it engages in on that level, its “You’ve Earned a Say” effort deserves the attention of anyone interested in participating in serious debate — and not the mob clamor of Internet spam — on the related if not connected futures of Medicare and Social Security.