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From buy now, pay later to Venmo, shoppers have more choices at the checkout this holiday season.
How you pay can go a long way toward helping you save money and stay out of debt.
Ahead of Black Friday, here’s what you need to know about your payment options.

Black Friday bargain hunters shop at a Walmart store in New Jersey on Nov. 26, 2021.
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

More Americans are struggling financially just as the peak shopping season kicks into high gear.
Yet shoppers will still shell out $1,455, on average, on holiday gifts — in line with last year, according to a recent report. 

Aside from how much you spend, which payment method you choose at checkout can go a long way toward helping you save money and stay out of debt.
From credit cards to buy now, pay later, here’s a breakdown of some of the best ways to pay this Black Friday.

Credit cards

“The credit card is the gold standard in terms of rewards and buyers protections, but the interest rates are a huge drawback,” said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate and Creditcards.com. “The biggest thing I would worry about is debt.”
Roughly 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck heading into November. That can make paying with credit look appealing, but there may be other options that better fit your financial needs.
“It comes back to knowing yourself,” Rossman said.

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Most Americans rely on credit because of the convenience, as well as rewards and buyer-protection programs. When it comes to holiday shopping, cashback or rewards cards offer an added bonus of 2% or more in certain categories.
“If you have multiple cards in your wallet, use the one that will give you the most value in return on the purchases you’re making,” said Elly Szymanski, assistant vice president of credit card products at Navy Federal Credit Union. “For instance, a card that allows you to redeem rewards on your everyday spend for cash back, gift cards or merchandise may be your best bet for holiday shopping.” (CNBC’s Select has a full roundup of the best cards for holiday shopping.)
If you’ve already banked rewards, this is a good time to cash them in, Szymanski added. “With many households looking to spend less this holiday season, one of the best ways to save is take advantage of the points and rewards you’ve accumulated over the course of the year by using your credit card.”

However, credit card interest rates are at record highs and only heading higher as the Federal Reserve hikes rates in an effort to curb high inflation. With annual percentage rates close to 20%, or even 30% on some retail cards, racking up any credit card debt will come at a high cost. (In debt? Take these steps to help trim high-interest account balances.)
“Credit cards should only be used if you can pay them in full each month,” cautioned Chelsie Moore, director of wealth management solutions at Country Financial. “Utilize them as if the cash is coming directly out of your checking account.
“So, if you see yourself spend beyond your budget, you may need to switch to utilizing cash or a debit card,” Moore said.

Buy now, pay later

The ability to spread out a purchase with no interest offers a distinct advantage over credit cards. However, studies have also shown that installment buying could encourage consumers to spend more than they can afford. Plus, some users say making a return — which is key when it comes to holiday gifts — could be trickier using this payment method.
This season, more consumers will have the option to buy now, pay later when shopping online at retailers like Target, Walmart and Amazon, and many providers have browser extensions, as well, which you can download and apply to any online purchase. Then there are the apps, which let you use installment payments when buying things in person, too — just like you would use Apple Pay.
But for now, BNPL loans are not subject to the same regulations that apply to credit or debit cards and there are fewer purchase protections, including the ability to dispute a charge if you bought a good or service that wasn’t delivered as promised.

Cash or debit

Fewer consumers use cash at all these days, but there may be some advantages when it comes to gift buying, according to Rossman, including being able to make a purchase for a loved one under the radar.
Also, merchants increasingly are promoting cash transactions to avoid credit card transaction fees, so, in some cases, paying with cash can shave roughly 3% off the purchase price.
“There’s been a backlash about credit card processing fees,” Rossman said. “One of the levers merchants pull is offering a cash discount.”

Rossman advises shoppers to do the math: Saving on the processing fee could exceed what your credit card offers in cashback rewards. “Especially if it’s a big-ticket item, that could really add up,” he said.
In addition to the potential savings, relying on cash or a debit card can help you stick to a budget, other experts say. Stashing cash in an envelope for holiday gift buying (or any other spending category) is an age-old hack to stay disciplined in your spending.
Just recently, the envelope-budgeting method made a comeback on TikTok in the form of “cash stuffing.”
Of course, you don’t need an actual envelope.
“Some find it helpful to have multiple checking accounts with smaller amounts of cash, then you can have debit cards dedicated for specific purposes,” Moore said.

Venmo

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Apps like Apple Pay, Venmo and Zelle work just like cash and are nearly as easy to use — even Amazon now offers Venmo (shoppers who linked their accounts before Nov. 18 scored a $10 credit to use on Black Friday).
But like BNPL, peer-to-peer payments have varying degrees of consumer protections, which could also cause an issue when it comes to getting a refund.
Trying to get money back into your personal account after it’s been transferred to someone else may require more work compared to requesting a refund with a credit card company, which often reverses charges almost immediately and fights on your behalf. 
“It’s kind of like getting the toothpaste back in the tube,” Rossman said. 
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With a high standard deduction, it may be difficult for donors to claim an itemized tax break for charitable gifts.
However, if you expect to itemize, consider gifting profitable investments or selling losing assets before donating the cash proceeds.
If you’re age 70½ or older, you can make a direct transfer from a traditional individual retirement account to a charity to reduce adjusted gross income.

Ariel Skelley | Getty Images

You must itemize to claim the charitable deduction

When filing your return, you reduce your taxable income by subtracting the greater of either the standard deduction or your total itemized deductions — which may include charitable donations. 
Former President Donald Trump’s signature 2017 tax overhaul nearly doubled the standard deduction, making filers less likely to itemize.

For 2022, the standard deduction is $12,950 for single filers or $25,900 for married couples filing together. And if you take the standard deduction in 2022, you can’t claim an itemized write-off for charitable gifts.

Aim to give profitable assets

If you expect to itemize deductions, your charitable write-off depends on the type of asset you donate.
Juan Ros, a CFP at Forum Financial Management in Thousand Oaks, California, said profitable investments in a taxable brokerage account are “generally the best type of asset to give.”
Here’s why: By donating an appreciated asset, you’ll receive a charitable deduction equal to the fair market value while avoiding capital gains taxes you’d otherwise owe from selling, he said. 

Of course, you’ll want to confirm your preferred charity can accept noncash donations.
With most portfolios down 15% to 25% for the year, it may be tempting to offload stocks that have declined in value. But it’s better to sell those assets, harvest the losses and donate the cash proceeds to charity, Ros said.

Consider a charitable transfer from your individual retirement account

If you’re 70½ or older, donating directly from a traditional individual retirement account is “usually the best way to give,” said Mitchell Kraus, a CFP and owner of Capital Intelligence Associates in Santa Monica, California. 
The strategy, known as a “qualified charitable distribution,” or QCD, involves a direct transfer from an IRA to an eligible charity. You can give up to $100,000 per year and it may count as your required minimum distribution if you transfer the money at age 72.  
Since the donation doesn’t show up as income, you’ll still be getting a tax break, even if you don’t itemize deductions, Kraus said. Reducing your adjusted gross income may help avoid triggering other tax issues, such as higher Medicare Part B and Part D premiums.

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The Biden administration announced that it will extend the payment pause on federal student loans while its forgiveness plan remains blocked in the courts.
Federal student loan bills were scheduled to resume in January.
The administration’s move comes in response to a federal appeals court ruling last week that imposed a nationwide injunction on the debt relief plan.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on protecting Social Security and Medicare and lowering prescription drug costs in Hallandale Beach, Florida, on Nov. 1, 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced that it will extend the payment pause on federal student loans until after June or when it’s able to move forward with its debt forgiveness plan.
Federal student loan bills had been scheduled to resume in January.

The administration’s move comes in response to a federal appeals court ruling last week that imposed a nationwide injunction on the debt relief plan.
“We’re extending the payment pause because it would be deeply unfair to ask borrowers to pay a debt that they wouldn’t have to pay, were it not for the baseless lawsuits brought by Republican officials and special interests,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
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The pause will be extended until 60 days after the Biden administration is allowed to implement its student loan forgiveness plan and litigation is resolved, according to a press release by the U.S. Department of Education. If it can’t proceed with its policy and the legal challenges are still unfolding by June 30, 2023, student loan payments will restart 60 days after that.
It’s the eighth time the Education Department has extended the pandemic-era relief policy.

Federal student loan payments have been on pause since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic first hit the U.S. and crippled the economy. Resuming the bills for more than 40 million Americans will be a massive task, and the Biden administration had hoped to ease the transition by forgiving a large share of student debt first.

Yet not long after President Joe Biden announced his sweeping plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for millions of Americans, a number of conservative groups and Republican-backed states attacked the policy in the courts. Two of these lawsuits have been successful in at least temporarily halting the relief, and the Education Department closed its loan cancellation application portal this month.
A top official at the Education Department recently said student loan default rates could dramatically spike if its loan forgiveness plan is thwarted, “due to the ongoing confusion about what they owe.”
Biden tweeted about the extension Tuesday.
“I’m confident that our student debt relief plan is legal. But it’s on hold because Republican officials want to block it,” Biden tweeted.
“That’s why @SecCardona is extending the payment pause to no later than June 30, 2023, giving the Supreme Court time to hear the case in its current term.”
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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The child tax credit of 2021, which was more generous and available to more families, has expired.
Now, an estimated 19 million children receive less than the full tax credit credit or no credit at all.
There’s a push for Congress to renew a more generous child tax credit as it seeks to extend certain corporate tax breaks.

Parents and caregivers with the Economic Security Project gather outside the White House to advocate for the Child Tax Credit in advance of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Sept. 20 in Washington, DC.
Larry French | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Millions of families received monthly checks of up to $300 per child in 2021, thanks to the expanded child tax credit.
But now that the legislation that put the more generous payments in place has expired, about 19 million children receive less than the full credit or no credit at all, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute.

Making the full $2,000 child tax credit available to children whose parents’ earnings are too low or who are out of work would help substantially reduce child poverty, according to the CBPP.
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The expanded child tax credit and other legislative changes helped reduce the child poverty rate to a record low of 5.2%. Without those changes, it would have been 8.1%, according to the report.
Now, during the lame-duck session before the next Congress is seated, legislators have another opportunity to expand the credit again at the same time they are poised to consider corporate tax breaks.
“The stakes are high,” the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report states. “Policymakers can expand the child tax credit, or they can fail to act and see the Rescue Plan’s historic gains against child poverty evaporate.”

Why low-income families receive smaller credits

The 2021 child tax credit gave families larger sums: up to $3,600 per child under age 6, and up to $3,000 per child ages 6 through 17. Up to half of those sums was available through monthly payments, while families could file for the rest of the money (or the entire sums if they did not receive monthly checks) with their 2021 tax returns.
More families were eligible to receive the expanded credit since it was made available to all children, excluding high-income families, and also included 17-year-olds.
Now, the child tax credit has reverted to previous rules, for a total of $2,000 per child up under age 17.
Because those rules also include earned income requirements, about 19 million children receive less than the full credit or no credit at all.
The current child tax credit phases in with earnings above $2,500. A family may only receive up to $1,500 if the amount of the tax credit due to them exceeds their income tax liability. The credit also phases in with income rather than number of children.

Alexi Rosenfeld | Getty Images

As a result, families with lower incomes may receive the same sum, regardless of the number of children they have, while a high-income family may receive $2,000 per child, according to the CBPP report.
For example, a single parent of two children earning $15,000 may receive a child tax credit of $1,875. In comparison, a single parent of two children earning $150,000, or married parents earning $400,000, would receive $4,000, or $2,000, respectively, per child.
Families receiving reduced or no child tax credits due to low incomes tend to be members of racial minorities. That includes an estimated 45% of Black children, up to 39% of Latino children and 38% of American Indian or Alaskan Native children, according to Sarah Calame, research assistant at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“An expanded CTC that focuses on lifting up those 19 million kids who are left out could really push back on some of these economic inequities,” Calame said.

Some lawmakers urge end-of-year action

Parents and children participate in a demonstration organized by the ParentsTogether Foundation in support of the child tax credit portion of the Build Back Better bill outside of the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 13, 2021.
Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As Congress seeks a way to include corporate tax breaks in upcoming legislation, some lawmakers say they will not support those efforts without a renewal of an expanded child tax credit.
Earlier this month, Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging them to reinstate the monthly refundable child tax credit, as well as the expanded earned income tax credit, by no later than the end of the year.
“We should not extend corporate tax breaks unless and until we deliver additional relief for families,” the lawmakers wrote.
The aid could help families afford regular expenses, including food, amid record high inflation and soaring interest rates, they said.

To be sure, a new child tax credit may not have the same terms as the 2021 policy, as lawmakers face “difficult tradeoffs,” according to a recent report from the Tax Foundation.
The largest hurdle they face may be deciding the credit’s role in the tax code. Currently, the credit provides social support for families with children, an adjustment for household size, support for working class and poor families, as well as work incentives.
Based on the success the 2021 credit had in reducing child poverty, lawmakers should prioritize making the credit fully available to the lowest income families, said Kris Cox, deputy director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“Child poverty is a choice,” Cox said.
“Policy makers face this stark choice at the end of the year, whether they’re going to act to expand the CTC in some way or whether they’re going to allow millions of children to fall back into poverty,” she said.

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The U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday loosened rules around environment, social and governance funds for 401(k) plans.
The Trump administration had issued regulations in 2020 that had a “chilling” effect on the uptake in workplace retirement plans, even if the ESG fund would have delivered a financial benefit, Labor Department officials said.
ESG investing — also known as sustainable, impact or socially conscious investing — has broadly become more popular.

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The Biden administration on Tuesday issued a final rule that makes it easier for employers to consider climate change and other so-called environment, social and governance factors when picking investment funds for their 401(k) plans.
The U.S. Department of Labor rule, which takes effect in 60 days, undoes regulations put in place during the Trump administration.

Those prior rules, issued in 2020, had a “chilling” effect that effectively sidelined employers from weighing ESG factors when selecting 401(k) funds, senior Labor Department officials said during a press call Tuesday.
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ESG investing is also known as sustainable or impact investing. There are many flavors of ESG funds; they may, for example, funnel investor money into wind and solar companies or those with diverse board members, or steer funds away from firms involved in fossil fuels.
ESG funds have grown more popular in recent years. Investors poured $69.2 billion into them in 2021, an annual record, according to Morningstar. Uptake in 401(k) plans has been slow, however.
The Inflation Reduction Act is expected to further bolster the popularity of ESG investing. The law, which President Joe Biden signed in August, represents the largest federal investment to fight climate change in U.S. history.

What the new Biden ESG rules do

Employers have a legal duty to thoroughly assess funds’ risk and return when picking 401(k) plan investments; for example, they can’t subordinate the financial interests of workers in favor of a cause like climate change.
The new ESG rules don’t change these duties.
However, they clarify that businesses can “include the economic effects of climate change and other ESG considerations” when making investment choices — something Lisa Gomez, assistant secretary of labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, called “common sense.”
“While climate change is a critical issue, that’s not [just] what this rule is about,” Gomez said.

Employers also don’t violate their legal duty by taking workers’ ESG interests into account when crafting a lineup of 401(k) investment funds, according to the new rule; that may lead to more engagement among workers and therefore more retirement security, it said.
The Biden administration’s action Tuesday follows a March 2021 directive that it wouldn’t enforce the Trump-era rules. The administration then proposed a revision to those rules in October 2021; Tuesday’s action updates that proposal according to comments received from the public.  
The new Biden regulations scrap certain elements of the Trump-era rules that Labor Department officials said stymied employers from using ESG funds.

For example, the prior rules didn’t explicitly mention ESG, and they required employers to choose investments based only on “pecuniary” factors — a term that essentially disallowed employers from selecting funds with any sort of “moral” component, Labor Department officials said.
The new Biden administration rules erase that requirement.
“Whether E, S or G, … direct or indirect, big or small, the [ESG] factor also furthers a moral component,” said a senior Labor Department official, who spoke on condition of background only. “ESG has an inherent duality of purpose.”
The new rules also erase a restriction that disallowed employers from using an ESG fund as a default option for workers automatically enrolled in their 401(k) plans — an increasingly popular avenue to boost retirement security. In legal parlance, these funds are known as a “qualified defined investment alternative,” or QDIA.  

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The deadline to spend money in your health-care flexible spending account is Dec. 31 of the year in which you make the contributions, unless your employer provides a grace period or lets you carry over some funds.
Consumers could forfeit as much as $1 billion this year due to the “use-it-or-lose-it” nature of FSAs.
The list of products that qualify for FSA purchases is longer than it once was, due to congressional action in 2020.

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If you have unspent money in your health-care flexible spending account, now’s the time to make a plan to use it before you lose it. 
Health-care FSAs let workers stash away pretax dollars for qualifying expenses. However, they generally are “use-it-or-lose-it” accounts: Unless your company provides a grace period or lets you carry over some funds into the next year, the standard deadline to spend the money is Dec. 31 of the year in which you make the contributions.

The good news is that even if you don’t have medical needs to spend the funds on — i.e., doctor’s appointments or prescription drugs — an estimated $1,600 is spent by households each year on health care products that could otherwise be purchased using FSA dollars, according to FSAStore.com. This means it’s likely you’d find a way to spend the money on things you’d end up buying anyway.
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“We urge all FSA users to check their balance today and make plans for spending their remaining funds before time runs out,” said Shawna Hausman, chief marketing officer of Health-E Commerce, parent company of FSAStore.
The contribution limit to FSAs this year was $2,850, and in 2023 will be $3,050.

Even with carryover or grace period, forfeitures happen

About a third of companies, 36%, provide a 2.5-month grace period to spend the money, and 42% allow you to roll over a limited amount to the next year, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. At the remaining 23% of companies, you forfeit funds remaining in your account after Dec. 31.

However, being allowed to roll over funds — a limit of $570 this year — or getting a grace period does not necessarily translate into avoiding forfeiture.

Among workers who are allowed to roll over money, 49% end up forfeiting all or part of it, according to EBRI. For those with a grace period, that share is 37%. Additionally, 48% with a traditional Dec. 31 deadline forfeit money, as well, EBRI has found.
 “Account holders are at risk of forfeiting an estimated $1 billion … to the Dec. 31 deadline,” Hausman said.

A variety of products qualify for FSA money

The list of eligible expenses that qualify for FSA money is longer than it once was, due to congressional action in 2020. For starters, over-the-counter drugs no longer need a prescription to qualify. This includes things such as cold medicines, anti-inflammatories and allergy medicine.
Additionally, menstrual care products are now eligible, as are items that have become pertinent during the pandemic: at-home Covid tests, masks, hand sanitizer and other personal protection equipment used to combat the virus.

Other products that qualify include sunscreen, thermometers, eyecare products, baby monitors and pregnancy tests. FSAstore.com has a list of eligible items if you are uncertain whether something would qualify.
Be aware that the IRS does not allow stockpiling, which generally means you can’t buy more of a product at one time than you can use in that tax year. The specifics, though, are determined by FSA administrators.
If you’re uncertain what the rules are for your FSA, reach out to your company’s human resources department. Alternatively, you can check your online FSA portal (if your company has one) for information. There also should be a phone number on the back of your FSA debit card that you can call.

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Credit scores are at an all-time high, but where you live could impact your financial standing.
Here’s the average credit score in every state, according to WalletHub.
Minnesota residents have the highest average credit score overall, well above even wealthier states, such as California and New Jersey.

Where you live may have an impact on your credit rating.
With Minnesota’s low poverty rate and high employment, its residents have a credit score of 724, on average, well above those of even wealthier states, such as California and New Jersey, according to a recent report by WalletHub based on TransUnion data.

In fact, residents of Minnesota have the highest average credit score of any state nationwide, followed by New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts, WalletHub found.
Meanwhile, Mississippi residents had the lowest credit score across the country — at 662 — along with Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas, despite the relatively low cost of living.

The national average credit score sits at an all-time high of 716, unchanged from a year ago, according to a separate report from FICO, developer of one of the scores most widely used by lenders. FICO scores range from 300 to 850.
However, this marks the first time since the Great Recession that scores did not improve year over year, according to Ethan Dornhelm, FICO’s vice president of scores and predictive analytics.
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“We are leveling off back to pre-pandemic norms which is, in and of itself, not a red flag,” Dornhelm said, despite “this slight deterioration of debt levels.”
“What we’re keeping an eye on is if there’s continued deterioration,” he added.

How debt impacts credit scores

As prices rise across the board, Americans are, in fact, falling deeper in debt.
And yet, credit scores have held steady despite the spike in the cost of living, which has caused credit card balances to jump 15% along with an uptick in missed payments.
As of April 2022, the average credit card utilization was just over 31%, up from 29.6% a year earlier.

Your utilization rate, the ratio of debt to total credit, is one of many factors that can influence your score. Credit experts generally advise borrowers to keep revolving debt below 30% of their available credit to limit the effect that high balances can have.
“We are closely monitoring what the next six months will bring,” Dornhelm said.
There are a lot of factors at play, he added, including inflation, the jobs market and housing, along with the pullback of Covid-era government stimulus programs, including the payment pause on most federal student loans through Dec. 31.

What is a ‘good’ credit score?

Generally speaking, the higher your credit score, the better off you are when it comes to getting a loan. You’re more likely to be approved, and if you’re approved you can qualify for a lower interest rate.
A good score generally is above 670, a very good score is over 740 and anything above 800 is considered exceptional.

An average score of 716 by FICO measurements means most lenders will consider your creditworthiness “good” and are more likely to extend lower rates.
Average nationwide credit scores bottomed out at 686 during the housing crisis more than a decade ago, when there was a sharp increase in foreclosures. They steadily ticked higher until the pandemic, when government stimulus programs and a spike in household saving helped scores jump to a historical high of 713.
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Some older voters in key congressional districts switched allegiances from Republican to Democrat in the runup to the election, a recent AARP survey finds.
The campaigns hold a lesson for Republicans to be more careful with their messaging around Social Security and Medicare.
“Stop looking like you’re going to jump on the third rail of American politics,” one Republican pollster says.

Amalia Conner registers to vote so she can cast her ballot in midterm elections at the Bay Ridge Civic Association in Annapolis, November 8, 2022.
Mary F. Calvert | Reuters

An expected “red wave” of votes for Republican candidates did not come to fruition in the November midterm elections.
A post-election AARP survey points to one reason why — voters ages 50 and up, who represented 61% of the electorate in 63 of the most competitive congressional districts and helped give Democrats there a 2% edge.

The party’s success was largely due to seniors, the survey found, particularly women 65 and up who switched support from Republicans to Democrats between July and November.
The survey was conducted in November immediately after the election by bipartisan polling team Fabrizio Ward and Impact Research. It included 1,903 general-election voters and 450 nonvoters.
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“Fifty-plus voters were the deciders,” Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster and partner at Fabrizio Ward, said during a recent webinar hosted by AARP.
Inflation and rising prices topped the list of overall voter concerns, with 33%, followed by abortion, 28%, and threats to democracy, 25%.

Democratic candidates ranked high with voters who are concerned most with abortion and threats to democracy. Republicans won with those worried about inflation, immigration and the economy.
“The fact that those three issues there — inflation, abortion and threats to democracy — were so close in terms of being the top driver of votes points to one of the reasons why this ended up being Democrats closely having the edge closely in these districts,” Fabrizio said.

Senior voters, particularly women ages 65 and up, ranked threats to democracy and Social Security and Medicare among their top issues.
“Senior citizens certainly made the difference,” Fabrizio said.
“The Democrats appeared to effectively target seniors with messages, particularly about Social Security and Medicare, that helped them regain footing with those voters,” he said.

What Republicans and Democrats can learn

Based on the results, the bipartisan team of pollsters said there are key takeaways for both political parties going forward.
For Democrats, this was the second straight election where they had success with seniors, noted John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster and founder of Impact Research.
Their success this time around may be attributed to the wins they could share, he said, including new legislation to lower Medicare prescription drug prices.
“Republicans learned they need more of an agenda that touches people,” Anzalone said.

“That’s what I would say to members of Congress, ‘Don’t forget that people want to know what you’ve done, but also want to know your agenda and vision,'” he said.
Republicans could start by getting on board with prescription drug reform, Fabrizio said, which affects the broad population, not just seniors.
They should also be more careful with their messaging around Social Security and Medicare, he said.
“Stop looking like you’re going to jump on the third rail of American politics, which is messing with Social Security and Medicare,” Fabrizio said. “These people clearly want to see it protected and strengthened, and that’s what we should be looking to do.”

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