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Are baby boomers to blame for debt crisis?
CNN ^ | 2011-07-29 | Ed Hornick

Posted on 07/30/2011 10:32:57 PM PDT by rabscuttle385

Baby boomers -- those born between 1946 and 1964 -- have been described as "the pig in the python" and the "sandwich generation."

They lived well, grew up in relative abundance and, some say, expected their Social Security, health care and government support to be there as they grew old.

Now, as the future of the country's economy is up in the air, is this group of 80 million aging Americans -- many of whom are sprinting toward retirement age -- the ones to blame for the nation's shaky economic system?

(snip)

Thomas Firey, a senior editor at the conservative Cato Institute and member of generation X, said it's unclear as to what's going to happen to Social Security.

"Under current law, what's supposed to happen is once the trust fund runs dry, the benefits are to be cut by roughly 25% to bring it back into balance. Each year's income will equalize the outflow," said Frey..."But no one expects that to happen. (So) are we going to raise taxes on current workers? Are we going to get rid of the tax?"

But criticizing baby boomers is not necessarily a politically wise thing to do, especially when it comes to their voting behavior.

(snip)

Jerry Shereshewsky, the self-described "chief grown-up" at the firm GrownUpMarketing, is a baby boomer. The 65-year-old said it's not his generation group to blame, it's Congress'.

"It was not a secret that this largest cohort in American history was going to get older every year," he said. "The fact that Congress has not done a very good job of keeping up with what is really happening in the world: life expectancy, better medical care. You give people a lot of cake and ice cream, they're going to eat it."

(Excerpt) Read more at articles.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: biggovernment; boomers; debt; fedzilla; gagdadbob; globalists; medicaid; medicare; nwo; onecosmosblog; rapeofliberty; republicrats; socialism; taxes
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To: RowdyFFC

Bump!


81 posted on 07/31/2011 12:20:17 AM PDT by jpsb
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To: Nuc 1.1
Well, the greatest generation put LBJ in office. LBJ looted SS. After that, you can blame the boomers.

The first Presidential election in which all boomers were old enough to vote for President was in 1984.

In other words they could finally all vote for a President, but they were not yet running America by a long shot, they were still a very young, junior generation in the 1980s.

82 posted on 07/31/2011 12:21:52 AM PDT by ansel12 ( Bristol Palin's book "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far" became a New York Times, best seller.)
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To: ansel12

An ambivalent, proud and rich nation voted in our demise. I never saw that yet am a boomer. I will attack any asshat that puts me into the voting block that created OBama.

Kids, it is the Democrat Party that created it. You will suffer your socialist beginning.


83 posted on 07/31/2011 12:29:07 AM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: eyedigress

Our education was so different. I thank God for that and regret it has been so decimated.


84 posted on 07/31/2011 12:29:48 AM PDT by berdie
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To: berdie

To this day I think I know every state capital from the 7th grade. Mrs. Owenby is also the same teacher that found my hidden in the book squirt-gun. :^)


85 posted on 07/31/2011 12:35:27 AM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: rabscuttle385
the boomers have paid the highest taxes for the longest time....NOT voluntarily....

the generation before us.... alot of them didn't even work yet collected for 30 yrs or more and some still are...

I pay high premiums for my husbands health insurance..several hundred dollars a month....and I get dinged to pay for medicare...

do not blame me nor my age group.....we played by the rules...we paid forever....

IF they had taken just a little away from retirees 30 yrs ago instead of going along like nothing was wrong, then we wouldn't be in this position...

we allow double dippers and triple dippers, people collecting disability for "stress" and bad backs..illegals enlisting their children because they are "hyper"....

86 posted on 07/31/2011 12:36:22 AM PDT by cherry
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To: cherry

Very true.

These kids think we are retired. It’s just getting started. They are the ones with no work ethic.


87 posted on 07/31/2011 12:40:53 AM PDT by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: cherry
the boomers have paid the highest taxes for the longest time....NOT voluntarily....

Boomers have probably also had the highest paying jobs per capita, adjusted for inflation, of any generation so, per capita, boomers have most likely contributed vastly more revenue than any generation before or after them.

88 posted on 07/31/2011 12:50:58 AM PDT by TigersEye (No dark sarcasm in the press room ... Hey!, Barry!, leave them bills alone.)
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To: Lauren BaRecall

Abortion is the elephant in the room on SO many levels. The cheapening of Human Life for the benefit of self-centered convenience has been the loss of compassion, responsibility and morality. This ability to kill our own unborn is the reason our society has consumed itself, and resulted in the chaos we are in.


89 posted on 07/31/2011 1:08:38 AM PDT by Cololeo
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To: funfan

No, you vote for the candidate that best represents your beliefs, regardless of party.

Failure to understand that gets us politicians that feel free to do what they want without repercussion, for you’ll just vote for them anyway.

Me, I think it’s a bad idea to let just anyone vote. The only people that should be able to vote are those with a stake in the game. In other words, taxpayers.

For they actually care about some sort of return for their money.


90 posted on 07/31/2011 1:12:01 AM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: RowdyFFC
AND, I might remind you that generation X has been voting themselves since about 1982!

I was born midpack of the Generation X crowd. And in 1982, I was 9. Only the oldest of the Gen X'ers could have voted... and well, some call those the tail end of the 'Baby Boomers'.

91 posted on 07/31/2011 1:16:18 AM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: goat granny

****Kids want to start out today with a house the size that it took there parents 30 years to pay off.****

And that was back in the day when the father was the primary breadwinner and the mother stayed home. It takes both parents working now to be able to do what the previous generation was able to do. This is another indication that communist policies don’t work...the hidden inflation that robs buying power.

So lets just go further into debt so we can spend more money to service the debt....what a great plan...not.


92 posted on 07/31/2011 1:31:05 AM PDT by ResponseAbility (Islam...Imperialism in a turban.)
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To: rabscuttle385
They lived well, grew up in relative abundance and, some say, expected their Social Security, health care and government support to be there as they grew old.

Not me. I was born in 1950, and I assumed in my twenties that Social Security was be long since looted and gone before I received a dime from it. I've paid in all these years.

Now, I have to read that I am "greedy".
93 posted on 07/31/2011 1:40:28 AM PDT by Nepeta
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To: rabscuttle385
But criticizing baby boomers is not necessarily a politically wise thing to do, especially when it comes to their voting behavior.

Yep, it is the Congress who stole it.

The Baby Boomers have been paying into the program all their working lives.

And no, I didn't vote for them. I voted against every US Congressman and every US Senator other people voted for until this last time around (Yay! We won!--I think... the jury is still out, but so are the incumbents.), but I got stuck with the likes of Kent Comrade of Countrywide who has been running on "saving" Social Security and the family farm since there were a lot more family farms, and the people who were played for suckers bought it.

94 posted on 07/31/2011 1:51:02 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: RowdyFFC

Its not really a generation problem. The hippies of the 60’s were nothing more than useful idiots for “progressives”, today these same 60’s radicals are now considered the new “KKK”. Thats the things about Marxists there is always another marxist who is more “marxist” than the previous set (hence the term “progressive” — to progressively become more Marxist),. There is only way to stop it and that is to get ride of all Marxist professors, new anchors, writers and actors, clergymen and any other “shepherds” and replace them with a new generation. You watch what they will push with the next generation. We are heading towards the normalization of absolute degeneracy

Now forget the trying to convince the current genration because they are basically dead, now “demoralized” by soviet subversion, even if you tell them black is black and white is whtie they wont get it. Its only once we remove the Marxists and replace them with a new generation completely from power can we raise a new generation of nationalists.


95 posted on 07/31/2011 1:54:41 AM PDT by AngryMan0
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To: rabscuttle385

I’m not sure who’s most to blame.

I do know there is a mess to clean up.

I know it is our job to clean it up.

God Bless those in the House who have held firm, against all threats, against being called extreme, against name calling, threats of violence, etc.

God Bless them because they are soldiers fighting the good fight, in what appears to be an up-hill battle.

My sarge told us once after some guys were grumbling about politics: “it don’t matter who made the mess, its a mess, a fine mess.... but we’re here to clean it up” (or some such words)

That’s how I feel about the TEA party right now. Plenty of blame to go around, to both the Dems and Repubs. Neither one of them has proven they can work in the kitchen without making a helluva mess. So, as far as I’m concerned, they’ve lost that privilege. We’re here to clean up the mess. It won’t be easy, it won’t be pretty. Stiff upper lip and all that, assh*les and elbows and lets get to cleanin’. Belly achin’ about it aint gonna get it done, layin blame aint gonna get it done. We know what we have to do, and we’re doin it.

D’s and R’s go sit in the corner. The TEA party is here.


96 posted on 07/31/2011 2:38:22 AM PDT by esoxmagnum (The rats have been trained to pull the D voting lever to get their little food pellet)
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To: rabscuttle385
Well, yes ----- about as much as the GenXer's and Y'ers who happen to be the future liability bomb this country faces, right along with the baby boomers.

Alinsky Rule: Get the other side to in-fight while you clock them both from behind.

We got here because of the 48% of us that do not pay taxes, the millions on EBT, AFDC, SSI, WICs SCHIP, EITC, free Pre-K (glorified babysitting), Advance EITC payments, Pell Grants and on and on and on and on.

Last time I was at an SS office, it was full of foreigners and young fat people or girls with babies (sans dad) applying for SSI, SS for their immigrant parents and the like.

97 posted on 07/31/2011 2:44:59 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: rabscuttle385
The 2011 annual report by the program's Board of Trustees noted the following: in 2010, 54 million people were receiving Social Security benefits, while 157 million people were paying into the fund; of those receiving benefits, 44 million were receiving retirement benefits and 10 million disability benefits. In 2011, there will be 56 million beneficiaries and 158 million workers paying in

So, 20% is disability. You know, the disability those lawyers on TV are always saying they can get that disability you applied for and were denied [The Johnny Cochran Firm]. Additionally, my guess is that there's a good percentage of that 44 million getting SSI which the SS classifies as retirement benefits. There's yer truble, right there...

98 posted on 07/31/2011 2:52:41 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: eyedigress

Did that in sixties too. $.25 an hour and $.05 a basket.


99 posted on 07/31/2011 3:22:26 AM PDT by Renegade
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To: rabscuttle385
Some of the boomers tried to warn, beginning forty plus years ago, Freedom does not come from being in Debt. How many listened?
100 posted on 07/31/2011 3:46:39 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Please God, Protect and Bless Our Men and Women in Uniform with Victory. Amen.)
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