Raise retirement age to 74, George Will says

[Zorro]

Just in case anyone was curious about Bow Tie Boy's "solution" regarding SS and Medicare.

<snip>

The retirement age should be pushed to 74 for Social Security recipients, and Medicare should require Americans to buy their own medical coverage rather than rely entirely on the government, one of the nation's most influential conservatives told a Sarasota audience on Wednesday.

Conservative columnist George Will said that without major changes, those entitlement programs will threaten the nation's economic future.

"We are in the midst of a demographic deluge that is going to cause our welfare state to buckle and perhaps our economy to be suffocated," Will told a capacity audience at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center.

He said the influx of baby boomers into Medicare and Social Security will be more of a burden than the nation could have foreseen when those programs were created. Will said since the 1930s, when Social Security was created, advancements medical advances have helped increase life expectancy and extend retirement.

<snip>

More at: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110203/ARTICLE/102031064

[bigwillq]

1. Yes, so maybe I can enjoy one year of retirement

before I drop dead, if I hadn't by that time already. :mad:

[PassingFair]

3. You should be LUCKY you have a JOB, at 74....

:sarcasm:


:hi:

[bigwillq]

11. Maybe I'll still be lucky enough

to be able to still work the corner at that age!! :P

:hi:

[PassingFair]

14. Watch out for Omar!

[bigwillq]

15. He is one scary dude!

:scared:

:rofl:

[sarcasmo]

2. A ponzi scheme for all those who die before 74.

[MineralMan]

4. Easy for George Will to say. He's got plenty of money and

is in no way dependent on Social Security. He also has a job that doesn't require physical exertion beyond typing. I have a job like that, and do not plan to retire. I enjoy writing too much to do that.

For a huge number of Americans, such a job is neither possible or desirable. For those Americans, working until the age of 74 is simply out of the question.

George Will is a moron, despite his considerable writing skills.

[madinmaryland]

7. Your second paragraph sums up exactly why the retirement age cannot

be raised to an older age.

Now if we had universal health care, and people were getting the care they needed throughout their lives, then maybe, just maybe, the retirement age could be raised.

[Ishoutandscream2]

53. Mad, I think his third paragraph was spot on, too

LOL

[GoCubsGo]

56. Yes, but it was incomplete.

It should also have said, "Will is pampered wuss who wouldn't last ten minutes in the jobs of many of the people he wants to keep working until they're 74."

[BlueMTexpat]

18. He probably doesn't even do the typing himself.

Since his participation in the Reagan debate prep with Carter's stolen briefing book, I have found Will to be severely ethics-challenged.
This latest shows that he is also humanity and compassion-challenged.

May he reap what he deserves!

[Smarmie Doofus]

34. +1. Not many remember that. And George would like to keep it that way.

BUT *WE* DO.

He only "glanced" at the stolen materials... if I recall.

Hmmm....

[CLANG]

24. And then where will younger people get jobs if their all tied up with geriatrics?

Does George Will ever think before he spouts his bs?

[MineralMan]

61. If he thought, he'd write something sensible.

[SoCalDem]

5. Drop it to 60 makes more sense

:)

[Bragi]

58. Agreed

[n2doc]

6. I'm sure all those 65-74 year olds will be getting tons of job offers

Fuck off Boy Tie.

[Cassandra]

8. I look forward to the day...

when George Will is in need of help getting up while recovering from an illness or injury and the nurse that comes to help him and make sure he doesn't fall is 74, with years of back problems.

[May Hamm]

63. "What goes around, comes around" is a myth

He'll never see the day when he has to worry about money or worry about finding a doctor because all those in town are not taking new Medicare patients. Rich republicans think everyone would be as wealthy as they are if only they had been more responsible. You know... made the right choices.

[Johonny]

9. If not they won't be able to use the fund to cover the debt run up by conservatives

they want our money to pay for their spending on the rich. Once again why do poor and the middle class ever vote for conservatives?

[bullwinkle428]

10. This great "intellectual titan of the right" proves he doesn't have

a fucking clue when it comes to the subject of economics! :mad:

[HughBeaumont]

12. "I got mine. Your fault for not planning better . . . . "

" . . . . or being extremely unlucky to have been born during a period where most of the economic policy you worked under was written for corporations by corporations (read: Reaganomics). Hey, multiple layoffs and trips to college to retool your skills builds CHARACTER, you mamby-pamby pantywaists!"

George Will - yet another idiot fuckass, corporate politburo, unbridled capitalist-supporting lapdog whose head is buried in a sand dune filled with debt fairies, workers who can afford things and a CEO lovingly overseeing it all.

[niyad]

13. stick to baseball, george

[Johonny]

36. why his baseball books are terrible

he uses dummy numbers given to him by the owners. They are anti-union propaganda. None of his financial numbers agree with independent analysis done by other sources. He sucks as bad in baseball as politics and the economy.

[JVS]

16. How are people who can't find jobs in their mid 50s supposed to work until 74?

[TheCowsCameHome]

20. or die first?

[Vickers]

17. Fuck it George, raise it to 96, CUT OUT THE BULLSHIT, MAN!!!!

:headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang:

[TheCowsCameHome]

19. Is he guaranteeing everyone will live that long?

If so, its'a good deal.

Otherwise, fuck him.

[Angry Dragon]

21. Must be a lot of Wal-Marts opening to hire that many greeters

[spanone]

22. in other words, mr will wants to do away with SS

quite the elitist asshole

[HughBeaumont]

26. Republican Moat Builders -

"I Gots MINE!"

People like George think SS was meant for one generation ONLY; for everyone ELSE (read: Boomers and younger), it's an "entitlement" and we should just PAY for what we need. You know, because all of us are just SWIMMING in liquid assets that we can do such a thing.

[LuvNewcastle]

23. Who pays attention to George Will?

RWers don't care what he says -- they're too busy discussing Rush or Hannity or Beck. Only conservatives who read pay attention to what Will says, and that's a relatively small number of Americans.

[dkofos]

25. Drop the retirement age to 55.

[lumberjack_jeff]

27. What a splendid idea! That'll finance even more tax cuts for Buffy and I! n/t

[texshelters]

28. We should lower Will's retirement age to

today.

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[jtown1123]

29. Will likes to lie, fear monger and spread hate. Brilliant proposal asshole.

[tjwash]

30. He's a creepy disgusting little man, and those little Heinrich Himmler glasses he wears...

...just about make his look as a conservative ass-smoocher perfect.

[Statistical]

31. Isn't life expectancy 74? Is that were he got the magic number 74 from?

You can collect Social Security after you should (Statistically speaking) be dead.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

32. Oh fuck you, George Will.

[Vinca]

33. George Will should be forced to spend 1 year doing back breaking work.

It's easy for anyone who makes piles of cash doing nothing but running his mouth and typing a few words to tell a brick layer or logger he or she has to struggle along until age 74. If anything, the age should be lowered.

[paulk]

35. +1000

I worked on the railroad for 20 yrs. That kind of work uses you up by your fifties, much less the current retirement age.

[Brickbat]

40. Mr. Brickbat got on the railroad three years ago after almost 20 years in commercial construction.

Railroad work is WORK. I salute your 20 years! :patriot:

[Ilsa]

52. On his feet for a 12 -13 hour shift in a hospital. nt

[kentuck]

37. For George Will and his class, I would agree.

Maybe means-tested also?

[somone]

38. What an asshole

[Tuesday Afternoon]

39. George Will can kiss my ass.

:patriot:

[WinkyDink]

41. They don't WANT 74-yr-olds to WORK; they want 74-yr-olds to be retired WITHOUT FULL SS/ MEDICARE.

Get it?

[Gormy Cuss]

42. So Mr. Will: are you on Medicare?

I take it you don't plan to retire for at least five more years because you're 69.


Nice of Will to ignore the fact that boomers and everyone else have been paying much more into Social Security under a promise from St. Ronny that it would fund the system for our lifetimes.

[old mark]

43. Raise it to 96 and eliminate the "retirement" problem completely...nt

[gratuitous]

44. There ya go

Because anything is better than the horrifying prospect of George Will having to pay one cent more in taxes.

[old mark]

46. Right- How could he afford to be so natty with all that money going to other people

who were not rich and actually had the nerve to expect others to pay for them?

If God wanted you to retire he would have made you rich already...


mark

[theophilus]

45. 74 is a good number........

We should raise the tax rates on the top 10 percent to 74% and place a lot of the money resulting into the SS fund. Yeah, I think 74 is about right, George.

[Retrograde]

47. A better suggestion:

Why not require all Americans to have wealthy - or at least well-off - and well-connected families so that they can get into an elite school and later a well-paying. low-demand job? Or at least require they have a trust fund set up for them?

Maybe things are different on Will's planet, but here on Earth it's pretty hard to find a decent-paying job, especially in a technical field, when you're over 50. Assuming your health stays good enough for you to work full time, of course.

[spin]

48. George Will probably never WORKED a day in his life ...

Will was born in Champaign, Illinois, the son of Frederick L. Will and Louise Hendrickson Will.<2> His father was a respected professor of philosophy, specializing in epistemology, at the University of Illinois.

Will graduated from University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois, and attended Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut (B.A.). He subsequently studied PPE at Magdalen College, University of Oxford (B.A., M.A.), and received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in politics from Princeton University. His 1968 Ph.D. dissertation was entitled Beyond the Reach of Majorities: Closed Questions in the Open Society.

Will then taught political philosophy at the James Madison College of Michigan State University, and at the University of Toronto. He taught at Harvard University in 1995 and again in 1998. From 1970 to 1972, he served on the staff of Senator Gordon Allott (R-CO).

Career in journalism

Will served as an editor for National Review from 1972 to 1978. He joined the Washington Post Writers Group in 1979, writing a syndicated twice-weekly column, which became widely circulated among newspapers across the country. In 1976, he became a contributing editor for Newsweek, writing a biweekly backpage column. As of 2011, Will still writes both columns.

***snip***

Will has also written two best-selling books on the game of baseball, three books on political philosophy, and has published eleven compilations of his columns for the Washington Post and Newsweek and of various book reviews and lectures.

His column is syndicated to 450 newspapers.<4>

Will is also a news analyst for ABC since the early 1980s and was a founding member on the panel of ABC's This Week with David Brinkley in 1981, now titled This Week with Christiane Amanpour. Will was also a regular panelist on television's Agronsky & Company from 1977 through 1984 and on NBC's Meet the Press in the middle and late 1970s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Will

He also successfully avoided serving in the Vietnam conflict. He has NO street cred.

[Ilsa]

49. Hey George, how's it gonna work out for you when it's a 73 year nurse doing your chest compressions?

Yeah, I know, there Might be someone younger on the code team to straddle you and do 100 compressions a minute without getting too fatigued. Or maybe the 73 year old nurse can ease her walker over to the crash cart to find some atropine. I hope she can get the dosage right with her presbyopia. Lets hope she hears the doctor right as he calls the orders.

Yeah, I know, this situation isn't likely. But maybe the point will get across.

[Bragi]

59. Quite so

And if he dies and there's a malpractice suit, his estate can hire a financially-marginal 74-year-old litigation lawyer who graduated from Class of '57 and takes long afternoon naps.

[Ilsa]

50. SPOKEN LIKE A TRUE DESK JOCKEY.

He has no idea how physical even professional jobs like nurses, physical therapists, even doctors have.
Fuck him.

[City Lights]

51. Hey George! Why do you hate Americans?

Go cheney yourself.

[Blue_In_AK]

54. It's so stupid.

There aren't even enough jobs now. Where are all these oldsters supposed to find employment??
What a tool!

[JoePhilly]

55. I had only 2 grandparents reach 74. One made it to 77, the other 80.

[TheKentuckian]

57. My mother died today at 76, motherfuck George Will

I guess she should have been digging ditches or something till a couple years ago.

[Urban Prairie]

60. I have nothing but contempt for this complete imbecile

Too bad that he and those of his ilk's carbon footprints haven't ended as yet.

If there is such a thing in the afterlife as reincarnation, I hope that he is reborn as a dung beetle or maggot.

Why doesn't Will just come out with what really is the conservatives' FINAL SOLUTION to the problem of "socialism" and flatly state that any US citizens who no longer can, or never could support themselves, due to disability, age, or infirmity/illness, and are proven to be of no real "value" to the nation, and then deemed as tax-sucking parasites that should inevitably become involuntarily euthanized?

[May Hamm]

62. It's not enough that Medicare costs $100. a month?

People like George Will just love to stick it to the little people. Deny them SS until they are dead and if they do make it that far, make sure that 1/3 to 1/2 goes to Medical.

Monthly:
Medicare - $96.00
Supplemental Insurance - $174.00
Prescription coverage - $35.00

$305.00 a month which equals just under 1/3 of my SS.

And then there are the co pays. But I'm sure George hasn't spent much time thinking about something which will never be a problem for himself. Not to be snide or anything but my guess is he never even sees the bills for these things.