December 27 – It’s hard to have conversations about growing older.
We can talk about how to deal with illness because most people are stubbornly optimistic. We can talk about disabilities because we think these are things that happen to other people. We can set boundaries with children because we were 16, 18 and 21. We know what it’s like, and we know that sometimes we should have been protected from ourselves.
But when it comes to our elders, we are more hesitant to draw boundaries. We know that, barring illness or accident, the boundaries we set for someone else can limit us sooner than we might expect.
Like drafting a will or medical power of attorney, it’s an uncomfortable conversation we should have as a country.
We just finished an ugly election season, with the oldest presidential opponents in history, until President Joe Biden stepped down in July. President-elect Donald Trump is the oldest person elected to this office. The campaigns were full of attacks on both the age and mental capabilities of men.
Congress is also getting grayer by the day. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is 91. He was born the year Prohibition ended and the first “King Kong” movie was released. Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-California, is 88. She is as old as the Hoover Dam. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, is 83. He was 3 months old when Pearl Harbor was bombed.
The judiciary is equally affected. Of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, four would be eligible for Social Security benefits — five if you count Elena Kagan, who is 64 and could retire early if she didn’t want to wait until her birthday in April.
This is not a condemnation of the highest members of our government. It’s not disrespect for what they have to offer. Institutional knowledge is important and must be preserved and protected. But people are living longer than in 1789. Life expectancy in 1800 was about 40 years. Today it is just under 80.
And it’s growing. According to the National Institutes on Aging, there were 720,000 people over the age of 90 in the US in 1980. The Census Bureau estimates that this number will affect 10% of the population – about 33 million – within 25 years.
Many of these people suffer from age-related medical and mental conditions. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates the number of Americans over the age of 65 living with the disease at nearly 7 million.
Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, is 81 years old. She resigned from her position as chair of the Appropriations Committee in March; she did not run for re-election, but had not been seen in months. Last week it was announced that she was living in a residential care center. Her family told the Dallas Morning News that she had “dementia issues.”
Granger and her family did the right thing by giving her the support she needed. However, people in her Texas district were left wanting due to a lack of representation.
This is not new. It happened to Dianne Feinstein before her death in 2023. There have been repeated concerns about Senator Mitch McConnell, who has had multiple problems with falls and freezing during performances. McConnell has not resigned as representative of Kentucky, but is stepping down as Senate majority leader.
The constitution sets minimum age limits for seats such as the presidency (35), the Senate (30) and the House of Representatives (25). We need to have conversations about maximum ages.
But that seems unlikely. That would require senators in their 60s to vote to give themselves one or two more terms, rather than seeking the long terms of their predecessors. Grassley, for example, has been in office for more than 43 years.
Lori Falce is the Tribune-Review’s community engagement editor and opinion columnist. For more than three decades, she has covered Pennsylvania, Penn State, crime and community politics. She joined the Trib in 2018. She can be reached at lfalce@triblive.com.
