The anti-Generation Y lobby strikes back
Former Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly, now head of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, has this to say in a letter to the editor about last week's column on this country's dire fiscal course.
If columnist Jay Hancock really wants to have an honest discussion about our nation's current fiscal mess, let's start with the facts ("Boomers planting a debt bomb," April 30).American workers and taxpayers who are between 44 and 62 years old (the baby boomers) didn't create our current budget crisis; the Bush administration and its allies in Congress did that.
President Bush inherited a budget surplus and a Social Security trust fund built up in preparation for baby boomers' retirements.
Now, after billions in tax cuts for the wealthy, an underfunded war in Iraq and six years of a Republican-led Congress following the president's "borrow and spend" lead, we face a record national debt and budget deficit.
Americans of all ages should be outraged at this squandering of our fiscal resources.
However, rather than put the blame where it truly belongs, Mr. Hancock rehashed the administration's generational divide-and-conquer strategy.
This divisive "greedy geezer" myth is just that - a myth. American workers, most of them baby boomers, have contributed $2 trillion to the Social Security trust fund in the past two decades, leading to a $190 billion surplus.
Without these baby boomer contributions, our debt picture would be even worse.
So don't blame the boomers or Social Security for the fiscal damage done by this administration.
Notice how she lays it out in binary partisan terms. The implicit message is: "Either we keep things the way they are or we let the Bush administration privatize everything," which is nonsense. The answer is to keep existing programs but scale them back so they don't bankrupt our grandchildren. Of course the war is an expensive outrage. But if Bush had never invaded Iraq we would still face the same difficult choices about Medicare. (Social Security is easily fixable. Notice she doesn't even mention Medicare.)
This sentence is just silly: "Without these baby boomer contributions, our debt picture would be even worse." Without the baby boomer liabilities, our debt picture would be beautiful.
Comments
Thank you Mr. Hancock for raising this issue. It is an utter CRIME against anyone under 40 years old. I am a 27 year old with a degree in economics, and this issue is of great importance to me. Unfortunately most people my age have no idea or dont care to know anything about it or just assume that it will get fixed. It disgusts me on every conceivable level. The "trust fund" she speaks of is only full of iou's, its not as if it was a soverign wealth fund, that would make too much sense. And this is not a new development, BOTH parties have done there fair share(for the record i am a registered independent) I feel that Mr. Bush is the worst president in history, however, Kennelly indicates that this issue would not exist if not for his policies, which is simply not the case( although they haven't helped any) Simply put, both parties have gone against the rules of economics and accounting for years. Every politician runs on the platform of lowering taxes, at a certain point you can't go any lower. How can someone claim to lower your taxes and fix your schools and provide more services. Its really simple math. Look at what lower taxes have done to our education system and infustructure. The lack of education in this country is becoming appalling. And what is truly needed, to some degree, is HIGHER taxes, which is obviously political suicide. What is needed most is political will and common sense. Not pandering and offering what amounts to candy to taxpayers. Unfortunately the American people can't apparently handle bad news anymore, or be bothered to sacrifice for the greater good like there parents or grandparents did. I have followed David Walker's work with the GAO since college and if I could vote him into the oval office right now i would. Until then I'll be continuing to be responsible for my own retirement and medical expenses and keep funding the 401k and roth. Thank you again Mr. Hancock. Keep up the good work.
P.S. isnt it shocking that a former member of congress would become a lobbyist, what are the odds of that.
Posted by: John | May 7, 2008 2:10 PM
Silly woman - what a twit. I'm 54 and agree with the first comment from John, as well as your comments, Jay. Just keep my SS contributions and let me stop making them and invest the money that my employer and I are currently paying in on my behalf. I can do at least as good a job and probably better, even with just a few years to do it in.
Posted by: Mar | May 7, 2008 2:38 PM
Jay:
To blame or even link the state of the SS fund on the war is nonsense. We can agree or disagree as to whether the war is appropriate (I support it), but in the scheme of the Federal budget and the SS funding issue, it's a nit. And to John, the issues in our schools have little to do with underfunding. The US spends, per capita, as much as any country in the world on schooling, and more than most of the countries that outperform. Taxes as % of GDP are as high now as they ever were in our history, and military spending is as low as it has been in a long time. The issue, as Mr Hancock points out, is the size of our entitlement programs. I agree with John when he says that politicians don't want to give bad news, but the easy answer is to raise income taxes. Only 40% of the population pay them anyway. Most people who really think through this know that higher taxes won't solve things, but the real answers are tough to execute. So we do nothing. Raising taxes is easy. It won't solve anything. A Nation can not tax its way to prosperity. Just ask MOM.
Posted by: Ray | May 9, 2008 12:10 PM
I think the congresswoman has it right.
I write a blog for boomer consumers called The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide at http://boomersurvive-thriveguide.typepad.com
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Rita
Posted by: Rita | May 9, 2008 11:06 PM