While Wall Street CEOs walk away with golden parachutes, too many seniors are left with eviction notices, skipped prescriptions, and half-empty plates. That’s not a funding problem — it’s a failure of values. Social Security is a promise, not a piggy bank. But instead of protecting it, politicians keep pushing “reforms” while Big Pharma, greedy landlords, and insurers bleed our elders dry.

In Maryland and across the country, too many elders live alone, live poor, or live without the care they deserve.

The Plan

1. Expand Social Security, don’t cut it

• Increase monthly benefits by at least $200 for all recipients.

• Scrap the earnings cap so millionaires pay into Social Security at the same rate as teachers and truck drivers.

• Tie future benefit increases to the Elder Index, not the broken inflation formula.

2. Guarantee long-term care

• Create a universal long-term care benefit through Medicare to cover home care, assisted living, and nursing care — no matter your income or ZIP code.

• Expand Medicaid funding to eliminate the waiting lists for home and community-based services (HCBS).

3. End senior poverty and eviction

• Create a federal rent cap for low-income seniors tied to Social Security income.

• Automatically enroll eligible seniors in SNAP, utility assistance, and prescription discount programs.

• Fund senior housing, transportation, and community centers in every county with high elder poverty.

4. Lower drug and healthcare costs

• Let Medicare negotiate all drug prices — not just a handful.

• Cap out-of-pocket drug costs at $100 per month for all seniors.

• Ban patent loopholes that let Big Pharma block cheaper generics.

5. Protect pensions and retirement security

• Expand the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to safeguard pensions from corporate raiding and bankruptcy abuse.

• Create a public Retirement Savings Plan for workers without employer pensions.

• Ban hedge funds from raiding retirement plans through debt-leveraged buyouts.

How we pay

• Eliminate the payroll tax cap so millionaires pay the same rate as nurses.

• Impose an estate tax on inheritances over $10 million.

• Add a wealth surtax on billionaire net worth over $1 billion.

• Penalize corporations that raid or underfund pensions.

Growing old shouldn’t mean growing poor. Seniors deserve more than survival, they deserve dignity, comfort, and community.

Let’s treat aging like a life stage, not a death sentence.