THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040366
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Melanie Strauss is not the kind of youth delegate the organizers of the fourth White House Conference on Aging had in mind when they created the first Youth Delegation in the conference's 34-year history.
Invited to underscore the intergenerational focus of the conference, the 15 members, ages 16 to 24, were expected to lend a sense of cooperation, of bridge-building, between the young and the old.
But Strauss, 17, of McLean, Va., is here to sound the warning that if something isn't done soon, her generation will be bankrupted by entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
During President Clinton's speech to more than 2,200 delegates Wednesday morning, Strauss and another youth delegate, 19-year-old Gretchen Dee, held up signs reading ``Get Real: Medicare is Welfare.'' Dee drew angry silence from delegates Tuesday night with a three-minute speech advocating radical Medicare reform.
``They didn't expect delegates like me and Gretchen,'' Strauss said.
That's for sure. The party line at the conference is that Medicare and Social Security need to continue in perpetuity, as originally designed.
Even among their own delegation, Strauss and Dee are outcasts.
``You talked to who?'' asked Jennifer Craig, 21, another youth delegate, rolling her eyes. ``You'll never get me to agree with that,'' she said of Strauss' assertion that programs for the elderly are draining resources from areas like education.
Craig, a college student from California, represents 3.2 million students in the United States Student Association, which supports generational cooperation and tax reform.
``The way we see it is that instead of fighting over the little pieces of the pie and seeing who gets what crumbs, we need to come together in a coalition and work on issues together,'' she said.
Her organization formed an alliance with the Gray Panthers, an advocacy group for the elderly.
``My generation is not willing to sacrifice their parents, grandparents and the future of our children on the ability to get generational equality,'' Craig said.
But Strauss said her generation is not willing to sacrifice its future, either, for older generations.
Whipping out a thick report issued by the nonpartisan Committee on Tax Reform, she pointed to the charts. The ones showing that in eight years, less than 28 percent of the federal budget will be available for discretionary spending on priorities like education and crime. The rest, she said, will go for interest on the national debt and entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
``I know we made some promises,'' Strauss said. ``But I think of the United States as one large family. It's like your father promising you a bike for Christmas, and then the family had difficult economic times and he can't afford it. You have to make sacrifices for the good of all.''
Entitlement programs, she said, should be limited to those with incomes under $50,000 a year.
``Why should we provide welfare to the wealthy?'' she asked.
Strauss and Dee are circulating a resolution calling for reforming Medicare by limiting benefits for affluent seniors, increasing the eligibility age and returning to the original 50-50 cost-sharing ratio between the government and beneficiaries. They need to get about 200 signatures to bring it to the entire delegation for a vote.
``I nearly cried when I saw that,'' Craig said of the resolution. ``If these benefits aren't around for our parents, we'll be the one paying $38,000 a year for long-term care.''
There are ways to fix the Medicare system without overhauling it, Craig asserted. The answer is not raising the eligibility age or reducing benefits but creating a universal, comprehensive health care system that incorporates preventive and long-term care.
She suggested finding added revenues by reforming the tax system, taxing multinational corporations on their out-of-country business and eliminating tax breaks for the wealthy.
``But the only way we're going to have a strong nation is through unity and strength,'' she said. ``Over the past few years, both youth and older Americans have very much been a part of this generational warfare. That must end.''
KEYWORDS: DEBATE SOCIAL SECURITY MEDICARE REFORM by CNB