Posted on 10/04/2006 10:47:36 AM PDT by SDGOP
Unless Social Security and Medicare are revamped, the massive burden from retiring baby boomers will place major strains on the nation's budget and the economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday.
"Reform of our unsustainable entitlement programs" should be a priority, he said in prepared remarks to the Economics Club of Washington. "The imperative to undertake reform earlier rather than later is great," Bernanke added.
It marked the Fed chief's most extensive comments to date on the challenges facing the United States with the looming retirement of 78 million baby boomers.
In his remarks, Bernanke did not offer Congress and the Bush administration recommendations on how the massive entitlement programs should be changed. Efforts by the administration to overhaul the Social Security program _ once a centerpiece of President Bush's second-term agenda _ sputtered last year, meeting resistance from Republicans and Democrats alike.
As the population ages, the nation will have to choose among higher taxes, less non-entitlement spending by the government, a reduction in spending on entitlement programs, a sharply higher budget deficit or some combination thereof, Bernanke said.
Government spending on Social Security and Medicare alone will increase from about 7 percent of the total size of the U.S. economy to almost 13 percent by 2030 and to more than 15 percent by 2050, he said.
Bernanke declared: "The fiscal consequences of these trends are large and unavoidable."
The government recorded a budget deficit of $319 billion last year. This year's red ink is projected by the White House to total around $296 billion.
Financially shoring up Social Security and Medicare will involve difficult choices by lawmakers and other policymakers, Bernanke said.
For instance, if the government tried to finance projected entitlement spending entirely by revenue increases, the taxes collected by the federal government would have to rise from about 18 percent of the total size of the economy to about 24 percent in 2030, he said.
In his speech, Bernanke did not discuss the future course of interest rates.
The Federal Reserve meets next on Oct. 24-25, and many economists believe the policymakers will leave rates unchanged for the third meeting in a row.
With the economy slowing, the central bank in early August decided to halt _ for the first time _ a two-year long campaign to boost interest rates to fend off inflation. Policymakers suggested that the cooling economy would eventually lessen inflation pressures.
There's been relief on the inflation front as once-surging energy prices have settled down. Gasoline prices, which had topped $3 a gallon in the summer, have slid and are now averaging $2.31 a gallon nationwide, the Energy Department says.
Why am I not surprised that a narcissist from the "me" generation would blame his parents for the twisted lifestyle and ghetto-dwelling fashions he revels in? I see about as much maturity in a modern 30 year old man as I saw in a ten year old from a previous generation. Just curious, you still wear you hat backwards?
NO! Stop blaming your parents for your twisted ways and grow up.
LOL. I can picture you with your old fist raised and shaking above your head. Back in my day sonny, blah, blah, blah. Every generation has thought that the one subsequent to theirs were losers. You are no different. If it isn't the fault of our parents, whose fault is it? Seriously.
He could have written that in 1972. In fact I swear I read exactly that in 1972. Thank God I did. I've never expected a dime of SS and planned for that.
Rap isn't music, and MTV is filth. I, thank God, am not a product of the new-age "ME" generation. I honestly cannot recall a single young person from my generation whining and complaining about having to pay taxes to support our aged American forerunners. In fact, they were honored as the men and women who helped pave the way of freedom that we enjoyed.
The sweet irony of your selfish "me" generation is that you will soon enough discover that time passes quickly, and you'll be the old person whom you now view as a burdon. Just a bit of unsolicited advice, never blame your parents for your own twisted lifestyle and selfish ways, otherwise you'll never grow up.
On the contrary, no other generation but yours detested their elders and whined about having to pay taxes to help support them. Yours is the generation that has this insideously sick distinction. But then again, when you're all full of yourself, nothing that exists outside of your skin matters.
The only hat I wear is a beret where I go to drill for the Reserves. Maturity comes to all of us at different times. So will never get it and as you point out some have it at 10.
There are a lot in my generation who aren't mature, but most of the ones I know are. If you check my earlier post, most of friends were Battalion XOs and Battalion S3 in units in Iraq. They work with these narcissist ghetto dwelling kids you talk about.
I just help train my fellow Reserve and National Guard officers on being a better staff officer to prepare them for deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan.
I don't blame my parents for anything. They gave me a great opportunity since I was born in the US. Any mistakes I made are my own fault.
I think I'm doing my part to protect this country. What are you doing.
If my life is so twisted, then why I am here on FR.
So people have only complained about payroll taxes since 1980. I didn't know we Xers had that much power that we got Reagan to address payroll taxes back in the 1980s when most of Xers could just start voting.
My generation isn't the one who started putting our parents in retirement homes because we didn't want to interupt our busy lives. So don't talk to me about how well your generation has taken care of their parents.
You must have a procesing glitch in reading my response . My wife and I are the the "old" people . Retired at 57 and now 60 . My sons are the " me" generation but don't identify with it . They are both college grads and have great jobs in the pharmaceutical and power generation sectors .
We even have long time health care policies so we won't be a potential financial burden to them in the future .
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No, the original post belongs to the DanRather school of subjective truth...'the documents were fake but accurate'. Using a TV movie come-on phrase written by a member of one generation to 'prove' the attitude of an entire different generation is lazy, dishonest and just stupid.
As for proof of the boomers endearing love for the previous generation, all I have to do is look to the dozen or so friends and cousins who long ago paid off their parents' mortgages. We did it for my widowed Mom fifteen years ago and then we bought her a new car (replaced twice since by siblings). Oh, and we did this while raising our own families. What have you done for the people who raised you to be such a whiner?
I guess as our generation says, "it sucks to be you".
I agree that one can't generalize about a whole generation, and have said so on this thread. But were not the bb's the generation that 'rebelled' against the 'system', and now want the 'system' to work for them?
If there was such a respect for your elders, why was there a "generation gap"?
Does that mean all bb's are the same, no of course not. Everytime I'm in one of these arguments the most angry participants are not Xer's, but boomers who resent their 'more liberal' generational brothers. OTOH, to claim that the 'generation gap' is somehow a false characterization, is worthy of the best democrat example of history rewrite.
As for proof of the boomers endearing love for the previous generation, all I have to do is look to the dozen or so friends and cousins who long ago paid off their parents' mortgages. We did it for my widowed Mom fifteen years ago and then we bought her a new car (replaced twice since by siblings). Oh, and we did this while raising our own families.
Wow, sounds like you and your boomer friends are quite wealthy, which proves one of my other points. I consider myself lucky that I even have a job and a house.
What have you done for the people who raised you to be such a whiner?
I take care of them the best I can.
Is condescending arrogance part of your parents values or did you learn that in the 60's?
Dude,
I thougt we said Duuudddddeeee.
May God forgive us.
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