The Morning Meeting with Al Tompkins is a daily Poynter briefing of story ideas worth considering and more timely context for journalists, written by senior faculty Al Tompkins. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
A new calculation from the Congressional Budget Office is forcing politicians to choose their words carefully. The office found that spending on Medicare and Social Security is growing way faster than federal tax revenues that feed those programs
President Joe Biden has been sparring with Republicans for the last week over whether they have plans to cut or reconsider spending on Social Security and/or Medicare. Republicans say they have no such plans, but Biden’s defense of the programs scored big points with seniors.
Without changes in either spending or taxation, the trend of spending outpacing income will continue for at least another decade as Baby Boomers retire and qualify for the programs they have paid into for a lifetime.
The Hill summarizes the report:
The result, CBO estimates, is that combined spending on Social Security and Medicare will almost double by 2033, when required funding for the two programs will approach $4 trillion, representing more than 10 percent of the country’s total economic output.
Another consequence, said CBO Director Phill Swagel, is that Social Security now faces a funding shortfall in 2032 — two years sooner than the previous projection.
Medicare is projected to experience a funding shortfall in 2028.
A decade ago, CBO calculated that one way to reduce this budget problem for Social Security and Medicare would be to raise the age at which people would qualify for benefits. American workers once qualified for full Social Security benefits at age 65. Now it is 66.5. Some have suggested raising it further to 67 or age 70. While it could keep people working longer, will workplaces embrace workers staying in their job until that age?
Another proposed solution is to cut benefits, but you have seen in the last week how quickly politicians run from that idea.
That leaves a third option that the CBO pitched for consideration: “Imposing a payroll tax of 1% on Americans’ earnings would yield an estimated $1.136 trillion in revenue and more than cover the trust fund’s 2032 solvency gap — closing 213% of the forecasted gap.”
States consider loosening child labor laws to help employers find workers
The ongoing worker shortage is severe enough that lawmakers in some states are suggesting loosening child labor laws to allow teens to do some jobs they currently cannot. And, by the way, the state legislators are open to allowing employers to pay the younger workers less money. The Washington Post reports:
Legislators in Iowa and Minnesota introduced bills in January to loosen child labor law regulations around age and workplace safety protections in some of the country’s most dangerous workplaces. Minnesota’s bill would permit 16- and 17-year-olds to work construction jobs. The Iowa measure would allow 14- and 15-year-olds to work certain jobs in meatpacking plants.
The Iowa bill, introduced by state Sen. Jason Schultz (R), would permit children as young as 14 to work in industrial freezers and meat coolers, provided they are separate from where meat is prepared, and work in industrial laundry.
At 15, they would be able to work as lifeguards and swimming instructors, perform light assembly-line work after obtaining a waiver from state officials, and load and unload up to 50 pounds of products from vehicles and store shelves with a waiver “depending on the strength and ability of the fifteen-year-old.
The Des Moines Register explains more about what the bill pending in the Iowa legislature would do:
The bill in addition would allow 16- and 17-year-olds with the written permission of a parent, legal custodian or guardian to serve alcohol to people who are drinking it on the premises of a business.
It would some children under 16 to drive themselves to work-based programs. The Iowa Department of Transportation says online a student must be 14 1/2 years old to obtain a special driver’s license.
And it would let kids under 16 work until 9 p.m. instead of quitting by 7 p.m. And quitting time would be extended to 11 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day.
The Guardian says other states are considering looser child labor laws, and there is one such bill pending in Congress:
In Ohio, legislators reintroduced a bipartisan bill this year to extend working hours for 14- and 15-year-olds with permission from a parent or legal guardian, and called on Congress to adopt the same rollbacks at the federal level.
Legislators in Minnesota introduced a bill in January 2023 to extend work hours for 14- and 15-year-olds.
Republicans in Wisconsin passed a bill that was vetoed by Governor Tony Evers in this month that would have expanded work hours for 14- and 15-year-olds. The New Jersey governor, Phil Murphy, signed a similar law in 2022 that expanded work hours for 14- and 15-year-olds to work longer hours during summer months and on holidays and expanded allowable work hours for 16- and 17-year-olds.
At the federal level, Republican congressman Dave Joyce of Ohio drafted a bill in 2022 to expand working hours for 14- and 15-year-olds during periods when school is in session.
The Guardian says youth labor laws have come under attack recently:
Child labor law violations have increased in the US, with a 37% increase in fiscal year 2022, including 688 children working in hazardous conditions, with the number likely much higher as the recorded violations stem from what was found during labor inspections.
The Department of Labor issued a press release in July 2022 noting child labor violations and investigations have increased since 2015.
Several high-profile investigations involving child labor have been exposed over the past year, including the use of child labor in Hyundai and Kia supply chains in Alabama, at JBS meatpacking plants in Nebraska and Minnesota, and at fast-food chains including McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts and Chipotle.
Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa AFL-CIO, told the Guardian why the union opposes the legislation to loosen child labor laws. “All of these protections have been put in place for a reason. Child labor law is there to make sure that kids are working in age-appropriate work activities or occupations that are appropriate for their age,” Wishman said. “We think this is a rewrite of our child labor laws in Iowa that are going way, way, way too far and has the potential to put kids in dangerous situations.”
Journalists, with lawmakers in at least six states suggesting such legislation, it’s a good idea for you to be alert to further pending legislation where you are. Often these kinds of waves come because groups with interest in an issue shop sample legislation around state to state.
FDA considers allowing Narcan to be sold off the shelf
Joe Solomon, co-director of Charleston-based Solutions Oriented Addiction Response, holds a dose of the opioid overdose reversal drug Narcan at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charleston in Charleston, W.Va., Tuesday Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Leah Willingham)
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee is considering recommending that Narcan, the nasal spray that revives people who have overdosed on opioids, be sold on store shelves. It is currently available without a prescription but you have to ask a pharmacist to hand it to you.
Narcan, the commercial name for naloxone hydrochloride, could be sold in grocery stores or gas stations if the FDA approves the rule that no pharmacist must be involved in the sale.
Naloxone has been widely used since 1971. The FDA has approved four naloxone products, including injectables and nasal sprays. FDA studies about the safety of people using the drug mostly focus on making the mistake of not waiting two to three minutes between each spray into a patient’s nostril or spraying more than one dose into a nostril. But even in those cases, the outcomes were described as “nonserious.” A bigger problem is that some people have used the Narcan spray not knowing what it was or by mistake.
Researchers say the benefits of making the drug available far outweigh the danger of its potential misuse. They noted that they have tested how easy the spray is to use and found kids as young as 15 easily administered it. Sadly, young people sometimes are the only caregiver available in an overdose emergency.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than a million people have died from drug overdoses — largely opioids — in the last two decades since it began collecting data. Deaths from opioid overdoses rose from 69,061 in 2020 to 80,926 in 2021, a rise of 17.2% in one year.
There is a good bit of evidence to back the idea that the wider availability of naloxone might reduce overdose deaths. But researchers say people who would benefit from having the spray easily available might fear being stigmatized for asking for it. Researchers also say, “Particularly concerning is evidence that some pharmacists harbor negative thoughts about dispensing naloxone due to concerns regarding ‘clientele who would frequent the store’ or ‘providing the person with a free pass’ when they should instead seek professional treatment”.
The FDA is expected to make a decision on whether approve the opioid overdose treatment for over-the-counter sale by March 29.
Nikki Haley attacks senior politicians
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is running for the GOP nomination to be president, says candidates over age 75 (which would include Joe Biden and Donald Trump) should have to pass a mental competency test.
One might wonder why we should stop there with such clearly unconstitutional requirements. Why not require all candidates to prove their competency? Maybe give them a math test to see if they can balance a budget. Perhaps we would find that is why we always spend more than we have; it is a cognitive function problem.
Maybe we can test the competency of the voters while we are at it. Oh wait, the Voting Rights Act ended that after places like Mississippi required (Black) voters to transcribe and interpret a section of the state constitution and write an essay on the responsibilities of citizenship as a test of literacy to determine who was “fit” to vote. (Read such a competency test from Alabama in 1964.)
Haley’s attack on senior politicians lands not just on the heads of Biden and Trump, but also names like McConnell, Manchin, Pelosi, Sanders and Grassley.
Haley’s comments underscore a common conception that aging equals incompetency. There is a lot of research showing that the perception is so strong that people spend billions of dollars to avoid appearing to be aging at all. Researchers find that when a person seems to be forgetful or has trouble expressing a thought, “identical behavior by older and younger individuals is attributed to mental deterioration for the older target but not the younger.”
Researchers have also found that we learn this behavior at a very early age. One study found that when young children were asked to work a jigsaw puzzle with adults, they were more willing to interact with and engage with a younger adult than a senior.
Research has found, “There is also evidence that older adults face discriminatory treatment in medical encounters with both nurses and physicians. Perhaps because these professionals consistently see some of the most impaired older adults, negative attitudes toward older adults in general are common among health care workers.”
Before youngster readers get too smug, let’s see if you can pass a simple cognitive test. Here are three common questions used by researchers. (Answers at the bottom of the column.)
- A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? _____ cents
- If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets? _____ minutes
- In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake? _____ days
83% of all people who take this quiz miss at least one question. A third miss all three.
Let me just say I find Haley’s comments insulting to seniors. It reaffirms the false notion that if you are 75 years old, you are over the hill and cannot think clearly. Maybe an enterprising reporter could offer these cognitive test questions to the newly minted GOP candidate.
Here are the answers to the cognitive test:
- 5 cents (not 10)
Say the ball costs X. Then the bat costs $1 more, so it is X + 1. So we have bat + ball = X + (X + 1) = 1.1 because together they cost $1.10. This means 2X + 1 = 1.1, then 2X = 0.1, so X = 0.05. This means the ball costs 5 cents and the bat costs $1.05.- 5 minutes (not 100)
If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, then it takes 1 machine 5 minutes to make 1 widget (each machine is making a widget in 5 minutes). If we have 100 machines working together, then each can make a widget in 5 minutes. So there will be 100 widgets in 5 minutes.- 47 days (not 24)
Every day FORWARD the patch doubles in size. So every day BACKWARDS means the patch halves in size. So on day 47 the lake is half full.
