The Boomers' Time Bomb Denial

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60596-2004Jan6.html

Just for the record, the Congressional Budget Office recently issued a report telling us what everyone already knows: The federal budget is drifting into a future of unprecedented tax increases, huge deficits or both. This is no secret, because the great driving force of change is the impending retirement of 77 million baby boomers and their heavy claims on federal retirement programs. But in Washington, the CBO's irrefutable conclusion won't produce any noticeable reaction, because there's already a clear bipartisan policy concerning the future: Forget about it.

To leaders of both parties, offending today's voters with unpopular solutions to future problems makes no sense. Indeed, Republicans and Democrats will gladly worsen tomorrow's problems to win more of today's votes. President Bush did precisely that in successfully advocating a new Medicare drug benefit. Although Democrats criticized him, their complaint was that the new benefit isn't generous -- aka expensive -- enough.

It's expensive anyway. The spending is usually described as $400 billion over the next decade, but the CBO report says that when the drug benefit is fully phased in, it will cost about 1 percent of gross domestic product annually by 2030. That's about $110 billion in today's dollars, and these costs will simply increase total spending for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (Medicare provides basic health insurance for the elderly; Medicaid covers some nursing home care).

<snip>

The longer choices are postponed, the harder they become -- and they've already been delayed so long that they can't be easy. Prospective baby boom retirees may assume that their children will always pay the costs of federal retirement programs. This may be an illusion. As Heller notes, one possible response to a future budget crisis would be for government to "abandon or suddenly scale back on" commitments to retirees. Abrupt benefit cuts would be arbitrary and unfair. But given baby boomers' role in sanctioning today's indifference and denial, they would be richly deserved.

[SharonAnn]

1. I find this really offensive, we did take steps for our future

but the G-d---ed Republicans have been spending our Social Security Surplus on corporations and their wealthy friends.

We have paid more in Social Security than any other generation. We not only supported our parents and grandparents, we set money aside for ourselves so that we would not be such a burden on future generations (which by the way we paid to educate). We agreed to delay the retirement age (I'm eligible when I'm 66 and my younger siblings when they're 67).

So where does this guy get off saying we didn't do anything to plan for it?

And, for those of us who have worked for 40 years for corporations, we're seeing how our retirement plans have been "defunded" so that any overfunding was taken out (corporations wanted the cash for their bottom line) and now we're told that our pension (which is a form of compensation - we worked to earn it) is underfunded.

How dare he blame me for saving money, putting it "in the bank", working my entire life for a retirement, and then having the GOP steal it from me?

I don't blame any younger people for deciding not to do these things. What the heck, the GOP will steal it anyway in one manner or another. And they've got plenty of ways to do it: mutual fund skimming, crooked corporations, bribery of officials to get the laws changed, etc.

[cryofan]

2. it's really not that hard

1. get control of healthcare spending for seniors by instituting a not-for-profit universal healthcare system.

2. Start taxing the rich like they do in all the other western countries.

QED!

[abelenkpe]

3. I thought our large payroll tax

was to support the burden on social security so that we could afford all those retiring boomers? So hasn't generation X and the millennials already paid their social security bill? I recognize that there will need to be tax increases in the future if we expect any kind of quality social services. But wouldn't we gain that by taxing corporations and the wealthy as we used to under Pres. Clinton? Many corporations have stopped offering pension plans to new employees and even stopped payments to retirees so it wouldn't surprise me to see the government try to renege on their promises for a secure retirement. Here's another interesting article along similar lines but dealing primarily with social security costs:



http://www.harpers.org/TrillionDollarHustle.html

-snip-

Many, many millions have been spent to persuade the public that this scenario spells doom. Prestigious think tanks have been founded and funded to establish just this point. Generation X

[abelenkpe]

4. better snip

http://www.harpers.org/TrillionDollarHustle.html


-snip-

Many, many millions have been spent to persuade the public that this scenario spells doom. Prestigious think tanks have been founded and funded to establish just this point. Generation X “movements” obsessed with privatization have been bankrolled and outfitted for pundit production; generational “leaders” whose one concern is privatizing Social Security have been selected and celebrated to the skies.

The solid stone wall into which this doubt-building industry collides is the Social Security Trust Fund. Anticipating the retirement of the baby boomers, Congress raised payroll taxes in 1983 well beyond where they needed to be to pay for the current group of retirees. Thus Social Security currently runs a sizable surplus, investing its surpluses in government bonds, which should enable Social Security to meet its obligations until 2038—and probably for the rest of the century, given slight adjustments way down the road.

[alwynsw]

5. This boomer will not be a burden

I worked my ass off, retired early, and have NO INTENTION of receiving either Social Security or Medicare.

My wife and I have planned through investements, supplemental insurance, etc. to live free of Federal or state assistance for the duration of our lives.

Nope, we weren't lucky. We simply worked hard, planned, and invested to get it done.

[NeoConsSuck]

6. Here's an idea...

What if we cut our military budget in half? Nope, that wouldn't work. PNAC has grand plans for our military (Iran, Syria).

[Ernesto]

7. Good to hear from ya NCS

Stick around Amigo, We need ya!