AARP quizzes candidates on Social Security

DES MOINES - With Social Security's future fiscal health endangered, a national organization that advocates for retirees is pressing presidential candidates for potential solutions.

AARP on Tuesday unveiled its plan to inform the public - in particular, its 37 million members - about the candidates' plans, or lack thereof, for ensuring Social Security's long-term fiscal health.

'They should at least be able to tell us and the voters what their plans are to keep Social Security strong,” John Hishta, AARP's senior vice president of campaigns, told reporters Tuesday.

Due in part to retiring baby boomers and a lowering ratio of workers to retirees, projections indicate Social Security, which provides monetary benefits for the nation's retirees, will no longer be able to pay full benefits in 2034.

Roughly 610,000 Iowans - about 1 in 5 Iowa adults - receives Social Security benefits, and 3 in 10 Iowans ages 65 or older rely on Social Security as their only income source, according to AARP.

AARP is placing staff and volunteers on the ground in the early voting states - including Iowa - to ask candidates what they plan to do with Social Security. The organization will publish responses on its website, 2016takeastand.org.

'Iowa's AARP members are interested in what the candidates have to say about this,” said Kent Sovern, AARP's Iowa director. 'They tell us again and again and again: It's about their children and their grandchildren. It's not about the last 80 years of Social Security - it's about the next 80 years of Social Security.”

Multiple solutions to extending Social Security's solvency have been debated in recent years, but none have been passed by Congress. Among them: raising the retirement age, raising the cap on how much income is taxed, reducing or eliminating benefits for wealthy retirees, and allowing younger workers to put their Social Security taxes in a private retirement account.

AARP staff and volunteers have attended many candidate events this year to question candidates on Social Security. Some have responded in detail, while others have been more vague, Sovern said.

Hishta said the front-running candidates from both parties - Republicans Donald Trump and Ben Carson and Democrat Hillary Clinton - have yet to detail specific plans for Social Security.

Republican candidates Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal and Jim Gilmore also don't have a publicized plan for Social Security, according to AARP.