Michigan 2024 Senate Race: Rogers, Slotkin Talk Social Security, Medicare and More

En español | Michigan voters will choose a new U.S. senator on Tuesday, Nov. 5, replacing Debbie Stabenow (D), who’s not running for reelection after four terms in the U.S. Senate and two in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democrat Elissa Slotkin, 48, of Holly, represents the Lansing area in the U.S. House. A former national security official, Slotkin was first elected to the House in 2018.

Republican Mike Rogers, 61, of White Lake, served as a state senator, followed by 14 years as a member of the U.S. House (he chose not to run again in 2014). Rogers is a former FBI agent, a businessman and a cybersecurity adviser.

AARP asked the candidates about issues important to older Michigan voters. The interviews were conducted in July and have been edited for clarity and space.

On Caregiving 

AARP studies show that 48 million family caregivers provide at least $600 billion in unpaid care a year, many helping their older loved ones continue to live independently. If elected, how would you support family caregivers, many of whom are juggling work and family?

ROGERS: As someone who has lived through this — both with my parents, who are now gone, and my wife’s parents, who are going through this very thing right now — we are juggling that very intensive work schedule and the need to care for elderly parents.... More people are going to go through this as baby boomers get older.... We should look at every option that would give some relief for these families. Tax credits always come to mind as a solution.

SLOTKIN: One of the bills that I’m a cosponsor of — and I believe in — is providing some tax breaks for people who are providing care at home — for all of the equipment that they need, the medical devices, the services that are needed, all the team effort that goes into providing that care. People should get a tax break for doing that and providing [for] that loved one, because otherwise it would be handled by a much more expensive and much more government-intensive program at a place like a nursing home.

On Social Security

Social Security is expected to see a shortfall in approximately 10 years. If Congress doesn’t act, millions of Americans who are counting on Social Security may see cuts to the money they’ve earned. If elected, how would you protect Social Security benefits for the future?

SLOTKIN: If you work your whole life, you deserve a dignified retirement.... I wholeheartedly support approaches to shore up these programs [Social Security and Medicare]. The one that I’m most committed to is a proposal called Social Security 2100, which increases benefits for seniors while ensuring the solvency of the program. It does that by adjusting the payroll cap [$168,600 in 2024] to ensure that millionaires and billionaires are paying their fair share.

ROGERS: Doing nothing means [benefits] get cut, and that’s not an option. And so we need to look at everything that we can do, and it needs to be bipartisan. We need to set our politics and political differences aside. There is no more important issue than the promise that America made. These are people who worked, paid into the system and have counted on it for their retirement — and you cannot turn your back on these folks.

On Medicare

Medicare provides critical health coverage for older Americans. If elected, how will you protect it from benefit cuts, and how can the program be improved?

ROGERS: Obviously, fraud is huge. We saw that during the pandemic, and just the sheer new innovative criminal activity.... That’s huge and critically important to me as a former law enforcement guy.... We need to look at [Medicare] stem to stern and find out are there inefficiencies? Are there better ways to make more efficient the way that people can get care when they go into the doctor, and that doctors are reimbursed fairly for those services?

SLOTKIN: What I can’t support, and I don’t support, is privatizing Medicare using a voucher system.... I think we need to reform the system in a number of ways — but in particular, [by] making sure we do things like cover hearing loss issues, eyesight issues, a whole bunch of issues that are not right now covered by [traditional] Medicare.... What we have started to do just in the past couple of years is attack particularly the prescription drug costs that are really still too high for folks on Medicare.

On Age Discrimination 

Older workers often face age discrimination in getting or keeping jobs. If elected, how would you combat age discrimination and help older workers who need or want to continue working?

SLOTKIN: I was very happy to support a piece of bipartisan legislation that aligns the legal standards for age discrimination cases with other types of discrimination. So just like we don’t allow discrimination against women or people of color, we also want to make sure that we hold employers accountable if they practice age discrimination.

ROGERS: Younger workers are opting out of the workplace at kind of an unusually high number, and my argument is the best way to fill that is with older workers who are experienced, know how to work, and can be a huge benefit to any company by showing up every day. And so we ought to make sure that those seniors get opportunities. If there is purposeful discrimination on age, we need to deal with it. 

—Interviews by Sarah Hollander

Find more information on the candidates at elissaslotkin.org and rogersforsenate.com.

As a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, AARP does not endorse candidates or make political donations.

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