 AP Photo
|
||||||||||||||||
Posted on 08/27/2004 8:10:16 AM PDT by ladtx
JACKSON, Wyo. - Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Chairman Alan Greenspan (news - web sites) said Friday that the country will face "abrupt and painful" choices if Congress does not move quickly to trim the Social Security (news - web sites) and Medicare benefits that have been promised to the baby boom generation.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
Returning to a politically explosive issue that he has addressed a number of times this year, Greenspan said that it was wrong for the government to hold out the promise of more retirement benefits than it is capable of providing.
He said this issue was particularly critical given the impending retirement of 77 million baby boomers born in the two decades after World War II.
"As a nation, we owe it to our retirees to promise only the benefits that can be delivered," Greenspan said in opening remarks to a two-day conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City on the challenges posed by aging populations.
"If we have promised more than our economy has the ability to deliver, as I fear we may have, we must recalibrate our public programs so that pending retirees have time to adjust through other channels," Greenspan said. "If we delay, the adjustments could be abrupt and painful."
Greenspan, as he has done previously, suggested that possible changes would be raising the retirement age to receive full Social Security benefits, which currently is gradually increasing from 65 to 67.
Greenspan, who is 78 and was recently confirmed for a fifth term as Fed chairman, has been a proponent of raising the retirement age ever since he was chairman of a commission that recommended a number of changes to rescue Social Security from impending insolvency two decades ago.
In his remarks, Greenspan said that the projected doubling of the U.S. population over the age of 65 by 2035 would add to the government's budget deficit woes.
But he said it was important to be careful in how those deficits were addressed. He said that relying entirely on an increase in the payroll tax on workers to deal with the funding shortfall in Social Security and Medicare would make it more costly for employers to hire workers.
Greenspan said policymakers must consider all the economic impacts that changes in the government's two biggest benefit programs would entail such as the effect on retirement decisions, the size of the labor force and the saving behavior of Americans.
Greenspan acknowledged that any decisions to trim benefits or boost payroll taxes could be difficult politically, but he said those decisions must be made and made quickly to give baby boomers time to adjust.
"Though the challenges of prospective increasingly stark choices for the United States seem great, the necessary adjustments will likely be smaller than those required in most other developing countries," he said, noting that Europe and Japan will have a much higher proportion of retirees to current workers in coming years.
Greenspan has repeatedly this year addressed the looming crisis in Social Security and Medicare, a development that the presidential candidates have chosen to virtually ignore given the painful choices that will likely be presented to the next president.
We can only hope the ugliness is directed at the right people. Of course, for our leaders, the trick is to keep the balls in the air until they themselves are retired on a nice fat government pension, and have the ugliness directed at the poor slobs in office when it hits the fan.
It will take the collapse of a couple of European entitlement states before America addresses this problem.
Damn.....I just got my future benefits letter last week. I was counting on that income. Looks like now I might just as well retire early......
Socialism sucks, and that's exactly what S.S. is. Maybe our kids will have to help out, like in the old days.
Now what we REALLY REALLY NEED is an Non-amnesty Amensty Plan offered up by a President that lets Vincente Fox write Our Immigration policy.
That and change the rules that allow Mexicans to start receiving SSI and Medicare after only 6 quarters of paying in, while You and I and ever other American that has paid taxes since the FIRST day we ever went to work are required to have 40 quarters of credit before recieving any beneifts.
This shit is WRONG!
No changes for those in retirement....
First we get to work to support those currently in retirement. Then we get to work longer to support those in currently in retirement. Then we die just before retirement... That will fix the system...
Now will someone tell me how this is fair to boomers? Shouldn't all share the pain including those already in retirement?
Maybe if the 40,000,000 or so little Americans hadn't been murdered since Roe v Wade, this ponzi scheme could have stayed afloat a little longer...
Our kids will NOT support us.
BUMP
Its my money,Not the Government money
Don't forget the ads the SSI administration runs in cities informing Parents that if they have a child a with one of 1,000 illnesses they may be eligible for SSI.
ADD is one. It's become the new Welfare system. No don't work, get Serina down at the SSI office to file a disability claim for you sista. Da man owe you anyhow!
I agree. Plus most of the politicos won't touch it with a 10 ft pole. Afraid they'll offend their constituents.
I don't even want what I've paid in so far--just let me opt out.
Got that right.
Neither Bush nor Kerry have a viable plan to survive this demographic steamroller.
Both of 'em have their heads stuck in the sand as if it doesn't exist.
Not only that, they can hawk the meds. Whatta rackett!
Once again, the boomer generation screws the country.
Didn't Kerry annouce yesterday that when he becomes Pres. he would lower the age to receive Medicare ?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.