Disposable People: Caregiver Squawking | EP023

Good morning. It's February 10, 2025 today, I want to do some squawking. And I'm using that word on purpose because the new Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besant, says that people are just squawking about things like the exposure of our private data by Elon Musk and the doge folks this past couple of weeks. He says that it's squawking. Well, I have a question for you. Are you a disposable person? And by that, I mean, is it okay if the government stops providing or subsidizing Meals on Wheels. Is it okay if Medicare and Medicaid no longer exist? Is it okay if your social security changes in a direction that you're not ready for, or if it's discontinued, if you're a caregiver, these programs may be your lifeline. How are you going to replace those resources without exhausting yourself some more. Now, when President Trump campaigned on october 27 in Madison Square Garden, he said, and I'm announcing a new policy today that will support a tax credit for family caregivers who take care of a parent or a loved one, it's about time that they were recognized, right? They add so much to our country, and they are never spoken of, ever, ever, ever, but they're going to be spoken of now. Thank you all very much. Well. Thank you, Mr. President. But after the inauguration, Doge went to work on its unelected mission to cut waste. Essentially, they attempted to sabotage the law by cutting expenditures to those lifelines that we all as caregivers depend on. Some of their actions have been frozen. Some websites have been partially edited and restored, like the CDC, but it's unclear what will happen after the barrage of lawsuits processes through the courts. As an aside here, I'm wondering if the money that will be spent defending Doge will be worth it to Americans in the long term, the admitted trauma that Musk has unleashed will cost us all. So I have a question for you, are you a disposable person? Well, I'm going to ask you some squawking questions today. Are you concerned about the possible cessation of meals on wheels? Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security? You may think that these things probably won't go away, and true, they may exist in name, but the programs are going to probably be cut in a way that's really going to hurt caregivers and the loved ones they serve. So I want you to think about that. Now, President Trump campaigned on a promise about recognizing family caregivers. What evidence do you see that he really intends to do that? I still haven't heard anything about it yet. Part of me said, Hmm, tax credits for family caregivers, that could be good. But the interesting thing is, of course, that many caregivers suffer so much financially that they might not even be on the tax rolls anymore. We know nothing about what the tax form is going to look like. But according to a tax lawyer, Jasmine de Lucci, we don't know how family caregiving will be defined. How many hours do you have to work to be one? What is your income apart from family caregiving, or whether there'll be a dwindling benefit depending on your income tax cuts for everyone will ultimately mean cuts in the services the government cannot afford to fund. So that's pretty circular. Again, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Meals on Wheels, lower prescription drug costs. What are the priorities and what kind of progress are we making if we take those out, we've already noted that people suffer food and medical insecurity in our land. Why would we want to contribute to poverty, maltreation and illness by removing the social safety net? It's well known that family caregiving can have significant financial consequences for caregivers, including reduced income, higher expenses and lower savings. So all of these contribute to losses in quality of life for caregivers and recipients alike, which maybe will be covered by tax credits, but there's probably an income ceiling on the benefit, and a lot of us are going to get squeezed in the messy middle. Caregivers may need to cut back on their work hours at work, or leave their jobs entirely, or retire early to do that family service. I frequently hear from caregivers who quit their jobs to focus on loved ones and how fearful they are now. Care about sustaining any quality of life, caregivers may lose income, Social Security and other benefits. There's a definite impact if a person becomes a family caregiver while still in the workforce years, some caregivers, as elders even must continue to work to maintain some kind of income to cover the expenses that aren't covered by a benefit or assistance. Women, who constitute most of the family caregiver population, have already been suffering from lower social security benefits and other inequities due to time spent uncompensated child rearing. We love our children, but we're not getting paid to do it. Is it time to confront how we impose this burden at both ends of a woman's life, in her early child rearing years and later, again, in her elder caregiving years, thrice or more married oligarchs probably don't have to worry about this too much, but the rest of us do. Caregivers will have lower lifetime earnings and retirement income, and all of that is going to impact the future if they survive the caregiving years, when it hits caregiving, I mean, if you're an elder, say, in your 60s or 70s, there's not much you can do about your income if you must stay home to help caregivers may have higher out of pocket expenses for medical care, for housing, for transportation, food and other needs as they adapt their homes to take care of their loved ones or accommodate the health conditions they experience while caring for someone else. I think about my parents trying to care for one another in their 70s and 80s. My mom had emphysema, was walking with a walker and carrying oxygen tanks everywhere, and my dad was a cardiac patient, always at risk for another heart attack. I don't know how they managed to do it, and I know it was pretty painful for them. Caregivers may also incur other incidental costs, like travel to health care, appointments and specialized care. Caregivers may have higher annual expenses, especially if they live far away from the person they're caring for. They may also have lower savings, and yet they have to depend on transportation and other delivery services to sustain the household of their loved one, because they can't get out the door due to their loved one's condition, unless it's for a medical appointment, and then they have to pay caregivers likely have less money saved and invested. They may need to dip into their savings or retirement accounts to provide for themselves or their loved ones, and they may take on more debt to make their homes livable and accessible. Oops, I use the A word accessible. Yes. The Deia programs that used to ensure that people could remain gainfully employed while dealing with health concerns are stricken from that record too, so that was another purpose of the invasion of our data last week. Now I've got resources for all these concerns that I've mentioned today, and I'm going to put the websites in the show notes for you so you can check on my research. But I'm really concerned about what's going to happen here, even if the president keeps the promise for the tax cuts, I think that's going to have very little impact on most caregivers lives. So we might expect to see some proposals forthcoming, but there also be a lot of questions about who gets to benefit from the tax credits, or how much they actually help. Stay tuned on that one. I hope you're as concerned as I am. This isn't a political question, as much as it's a human, social question, maybe even a survival one. How are we going to support family caregiving? Where's the love, where's the share giving most of us will either need or be a caregiver before it's all over. And if that doesn't say something fundamental about a social need that needs to be met, I don't know what does. So whether they've restored these programs on the websites they took down, you can look around to other websites to find some of the Supplementary Data and information. For example, the American Medical Association, the AMA, is now listing the reports about avian flu and the spread so you can find that information there. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, for now, has explanations and documents about female reproductive health that may be of interest to you, and other medical societies will probably follow suit, unless there becomes some federal law that prevents these things from being posted. Talk about your freedom of expression,

it's vital to our healthcare interest. Business and our caregiver interests. So yes, I am squawking today, and I hope you will squawk too. Get your pencil out, use your computer, however it is, you're going to do it, but write to your congress people. Write to your representatives in your state and federal government, make sure that they're aware that you don't like this if you're a caregiver, because there's no reason on earth that you should like this, and that's the way I see it today. It doesn't have to be a long letter, it can be a very short note, but let them know what you don't like. I'm coming to you with a head cold that I've had for two weeks and been unable to think straight, and I apologize for my voice this morning, but I thought it was important to speak up and let you know that this is going on. You may have a lot of other things to do as a caregiver, but if you don't act now, the things you count on to make sure that your loved one is safe are probably going to go away. And I am not just walking. I'm not merely being an alarmist either. For a few hours the other day, many of these programs were frozen and services were stopped. You can let me know in the comments what you think about this issue. Do you think the government's going to protect the programs that you need to survive as a caregiver? Are those tax cuts really something that you want? Is that going to help you? We need to know and we need to speak up about it. Thank you for lending your voice to this cause, whether you put it in the comments or you write to your congress person, we all need to say something. We all need to do something.