HOULTON, Maine — Sen. Susan Collins made a brief visit to her native Aroostook County Monday as she updated members of the Houlton Rotary Club on the topics of Social Security, Medicare and elderly fraud.
Collins was also presented with a copy of the Houlton Band of Maliseets’ children’s book by Tribal Chief Brenda Commander. Maine’s senior senator also spent time visiting with tribal members Tuesday morning.
“I am honored to introduce Sen. Collins today,” said Rotarian Chris Anderson. “First elected in 1996, Sen. Collins has earned a national reputation for working across party lines. For the past 19 years, Sen. Collins has helped shape our country on critical areas such as national defense, education and health care.”
She currently serves on the Special Committee on Aging, Appropriation Committee, Health Education, Labor and Pensions, and the Select Committee on Intelligence.
“You may or may not agree with her politics, but one thing is undeniable — her work ethic,” Anderson said. “Sen. Collins has never missed a vote in 19 years. That is more than 6,000 consecutive votes and counting.”
In his introduction, Anderson also jokingly asked the Senator if she could address “What is going on in presidential politics?” to which Collins replied, “That subject could be a whole separate dissertation.”
Collins said Maine is the oldest state in the nation by median age, which is one of the primary reasons she sought a leadership position on the Select Committee on Aging.
“It probably won’t surprise many of you that Aroostook County has a higher median age than the rest of the state,” she said. “I also felt that issues affecting older Americans were not getting sufficient attention in Washington, D.C.”
She said 10,000 people turn age 65 each day.
“The Baby Boomer generation — my generation, is going to hit programs like Medicare and Social Security like a tsunami,” she said. “I believe we need to look at the issues affecting our seniors.”
Three areas in this subject have been her primary focus — improving retirement security; increasing funding for biomedical research to combat Alzheimer’s; and fraud and financial exploitation of seniors.
“It is shocking how little people are saving today for their retirement years,” she said. “There is a real concern that some of us may outlive retirement income and be solely dependent on Social Security. But the average Social Security benefit is only $16,000 a year. That is not enough for a comfortable retirement.”
The IRS telephone scam that is targeted primarily at senior citizens was another topic of her presentation. Collins stated she actually received three threatening voicemail messages on her home phone line in Bangor that were IRS scams.
Tracking down the culprits who initiate these fraudulent phone calls has proven exceedingly difficult, she explained, because the phone number given is a cellular phone that is discarded after a couple of days.
“We have held several hearings to expose these scams,” she said. “We estimate seniors have been defrauded of more than $2.9 billion a year. Just think of that and how outrageous that is.”
During a brief question-and-answer period, Rotarian Tony Bowers asked Collins for her take on the proposed national park in the Millinocket region. Collins said she felt there was a great deal of misinformation surrounding the proposal, but she was in favor of a recreational area that allowed hunting, fishing and forestry practices to continue.
A number of Houlton High School students also attended Monday’s meeting, along with social studies instructor Tim Tweedie.
