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Dear Fellow Vermonter,
Each year, I host summer celebrations across the state for Vermont seniors. These are some of my favorite events, as they are a time to talk directly with older Vermonters about the issues that are on their minds.
On Sunday, nearly 400 Vermont seniors from across Chittenden County joined me in Burlington to share a meal, listen to music from local musician Allison Fay and participate in conversation. It’s no surprise that the issues these Vermonters are focused on are the same that I hear from working people about every day — the skyrocketing cost of our broken health care system, cuts to Medicaid, threats to Social Security, access to veterans’ benefits, the environment and much more.
In terms of health care, these Vermont seniors understand that our system is broken and only getting worse because of President Trump’s so called “Big Beautiful Bill.” This new law makes devastating cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act that won’t just harm the people who rely on these programs — they will have a major impact on nursing homes, hospitals, community health centers and all Vermonters through higher health care premiums.
Seniors shared their concerns about how the president’s cuts will reduce their access to Vermont’s community health centers, which provide high quality, affordable primary, dental and mental health care, as well as access to lower-cost prescriptions. They also shared how Trump’s Medicaid cuts will make a bad situation worse when it comes to our nursing homes. Even today, when Medicaid covers more than 60% of nursing home residents, many of these facilities do not have the staff, funding or resources needed to provide adequate — let alone quality — care to their people. During the event, one Vermont senior shared a horrific story about how their mother-in-law experienced terrible treatment, because the facility didn’t have the staff needed to make sure she and her fellow residents were clean and comfortable on a daily basis.
It goes without saying that instead of cutting these programs, we should be strengthening them. As the former Chair and now Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I am fighting for legislation that will expand access to community health centers and train primary care providers to practice in rural areas.
During Sunday’s event, we also heard from older Vermonters who rely on Social Security and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). They shared stories about how these programs have made the difference between buying food or going hungry, between having a safe place to live and becoming homeless. These are not people who ask for much — they simply want to receive what they’ve earned.
For 90 years, in good times and bad, Social Security has paid out every benefit it has owed — benefits that people have paid into throughout their working lives with the promise that it will be there for them in retirement. Similarly, veterans raised their right hand, promised to defend our country and were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice through their military service. In return, we must keep our promise to them to provide the medical care and benefits they have earned. That is why I have introduced legislation to raise the cap on income subject to Social Security tax so that we can increase benefits for seniors and people with disabilities who rely on the program and ensure the Social Security Trust Fund is solvent for generations to come. And we must protect, improve and strengthen the VA — not privatize it — so that all veterans know that we will keep our promise to them, just as they kept their promise to us.
Finally, what always strikes me when speaking to older Vermonters is that they aren’t simply concerned about themselves. Despite their own struggles, they are thinking about future generations. They worry about the environment that we are leaving to our children and grandchildren. They worry about the cost of war and what it means for peace and security in the future. And they see the breakdown in the fabric of our society and how dividing people up robs us of our sense of community.
I want to thank all those who came out to our event on Sunday and I look forward to the future events we will be holding in the coming weeks.
Sincerely,
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