OVAL OFFICE INTERVIEW
OBAMA
MAKES A WISH
Give him this: President Obama is a
cool operator. When we met with him
in April, he was secretly planning
what would become a defining moment
of his presidency: the deadly assault
on Osama bin Laden. On this day,
however, our conversation focused on
domestic battles—including the war
over entitlements for seniors—and,
yes, how he deals with stress.
You’re hitting the Big 5-0 on August
4. What’s the best and worst thing
you can say about that?
The worst thing is, I don’t feel I’m
as fast as I used to be. And I heal up
slower on the basketball court. The
wonderful thing is, I’ve been able to
maintain my health pretty well. Also,
I’m old enough where hopefully I’ve
made enough mistakes I’m not going
to repeat. And I’m still young enough
that I can appreciate that wisdom.
tion. When my grandparents were in
their 50s, they were already “older.”
They drank, they smoked, they didn’t
exercise, they ate all kinds of stuff.
And so they were already slowing
down pretty good. Now I have friends
who are 65 and 70 who are in better
shape than my grandparents were
when I was a kid. Americans want to
be judged by their capacities, their
interests, their curiosity, their imaginations, and not just by a number. I do
want to make sure that when Malia
and Sasha are entering their 50s, we
still have the security of Social Security. Of Medicare. That we have maintained our commitment to people
having basic security if things don’t go
well in their later years.
huge debts to their kids and their
grandkids in the form of massive deficits. That’s why it’s been important to
reform the health care system, which
is different from simply lopping off
benefits under Medicare.
Is a big celebration in the works?
Last year, on my 49th, LeBron James,
Dwyane Wade, and all these other All-Star players came and played a pickup
game with a bunch of my friends and
me. Had a wonderful time. It’ll be hard
to top that. But I suspect the girls may
have something planned.
MARTIN H. SIMON/CORBIS
Speaking of your daughters, do
you hope their generation will
experience aging differently than
yours or your grandparents’?
It’s already changed for my genera-
Yet in the debate over the deficit,
people criticize “greedy geezers”
for caring only about their entitlements. Is there any truth to that?
Well, seniors have paid into Social
Security. They’ve paid into Medicare
over a lifetime of hard work. And the
notion that somehow they are asking
for something that they don’t deserve
makes no sense to me. They’re also
under severe stress from the rise in
things like gas prices, food prices, and
home heating-oil prices. And if you’re
on a fixed income and the inflation
rates on things like that are going up
faster than your income, you have
reason to worry. But I also think that
older Americans don’t want to leave
Can you slow the growth of Medicare costs without hurting access
or quality?
What we did in the Affordable Care
Act was to say there are ways we can
get better bang for our health care
dollars. The reforms ensured seniors
can get preventive care, which could
lead to less-expensive care down
the road. Routine mammograms and
colonoscopies are covered, there are
50 percent discounts on brand-name
prescription drugs, and ultimately
there’s a close in the doughnut hole.
At the same time, we’ve said to hospitals and doctors: “Let’s do things
smart.” Let’s make sure we’re not
subsidizing the insurance industry
for services that Medicare provides
perfectly adequately. And that’s in
contrast to some proposals you’ve
seen that say, “We’re going to give you
this set amount of money. You go into
the open marketplace to try to buy
health insurance,” and lo and behold,
you may not be able to buy it because
the insurance companies are charging
a lot more than what your voucher’s
worth. That’s a way of shifting costs
onto seniors. But we actually want to
reduce costs. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 88)
