Kaine, Stewart Diverge on Issues

By Tamara Lytle

Virginia voters on Nov. 6 will choose between U.S. Senate candidates with vastly different approaches to health care and Social Security.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, is running for reelection against Republican Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and an international trade attorney. Stewart, 50, is an outspoken defender of President Trump, while Kaine, 60, a former governor, was the running mate of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Health Care

In interviews with AARP, Kaine and Stewart disagreed sharply on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid. This year the General Assembly expanded the Medicaid program to about 400,000 low-income adults—including about 95,000 residents between 50 and 64, said Ginger Thompson, spokeswoman for AARP Virginia.

Stewart said the expansion of Medicaid is raiding money that could be spent on Medicare: “I’d like a full repeal of Obamacare and restore the funding to Medicare. It’s been an absolute disaster for America. It has increased premiums by as much as 300 percent.”

But Kaine said the ACA has given health insurance coverage to people who were without it. He’d like to expand coverage even more by creating a government-run insurance policy called Medicare-X for those too young to qualify for Medicare. That would help lower future Medicare costs, he said, because people who get coverage earlier would enter their Medicare years in better health.

Under current law, Medicare’s reserve funds will be used up, and current taxes won’t fully cover the promised hospital benefits by 2026, according to this year’s Social Security and Medicare trustees’ report.

Kaine would like to let Medicare negotiate discounts with drugmakers to lower prescription costs. “We should use our purchasing power,” Kaine said. Stewart’s campaign did not comment on the idea.

Stewart supports a major change to Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor. “Medicaid is heading toward a brick wall at 100 mph. It’s breaking the budget,” Stewart said. Medicaid should instead be a lump-sum payment to states to adopt their own polices, he added. “The states can design a program much better than Washington politicians.”

Kaine worries that lump-sum payments would leave states without enough money over time, requiring them to reduce coverage. “You are going to put a lot of very vulnerable children, seniors and disabled people at risk if you do that,” he said.

Social Security

Although the Social Security program has enough money to pay all beneficiaries until 2034, after that payroll taxes from current workers won’t be enough to cover all benefits due to retirees, the trustees’ report said.

To sustain the program, Kaine would increase the wage cap on Social Security tax payments beyond the present $128,400.

Stewart said he believes that the fund is solvent into the future: “I don’t want to change it at all. It’s a pension, not a government benefit. The promise needs to be kept.”

The candidates will face off in a debate hosted by AARP Virginia with Richmond partners WCVE-TV (PBS) and WTVR-TV6 (CBS) at 7 p.m. Oct. 2.

Tamara Lytle is a writer based in Vienna, VA.