Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 141-160161-180181-200201-216 last
To: ansel12

I guess math isn’t your forte; most children born in the ten years following WWII (the boom) would be voting (and protesting, and doing whatever young adults do) in 1972.


201 posted on 08/01/2011 3:53:13 PM PDT by kearnyirish2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 199 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

They certainly ended the war; I guess they told somebody to do it. Young black males also steered a lot of the social policy of the sixties; they were bought off rather than have them “wilding”.


202 posted on 08/01/2011 3:56:16 PM PDT by kearnyirish2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 200 | View Replies]

To: kearnyirish2
I guess math isn’t your forte

People born in 1956 would not be voting in 1972, and that isn't your stupid argument anyway, you aren't saying the obvious, that people vote, including the young.

Your madness is in claiming that the kids and young voters were running the nation, and making Supreme Court decisions and running wars.

203 posted on 08/01/2011 3:59:16 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Bristol Palin's book "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far" became a New York Times, best seller.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 201 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

They didn’t run wars; they ended one.


204 posted on 08/01/2011 4:02:31 PM PDT by kearnyirish2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 203 | View Replies]

To: kearnyirish2

To reach a peace agreement with the enemy, ending the war, you have to be running the military and the government, as the WWII generation was doing at the time.

You seem a little insane, are you very young or something, you didn’t know that America used to be run by old people, older than their teens and mid twenties, just like it is today?


205 posted on 08/01/2011 4:19:13 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Bristol Palin's book "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far" became a New York Times, best seller.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 204 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

“People born in 1956 would not be voting in 1972”

That wasn’t the poster’s statement:

“...*most* children born *in the ten years* following WWII (the boom) would be voting (and protesting, and doing whatever young adults do) in 1972.”

In theory people born in 1954 could vote. So yes, that is “most in the ten years” from ‘46-’56.

I’m late to this but I knew you’d be here. Well, you are on the Gen-X ping, it seems, so sure.

Still wishing you could point us to a website where we might find voting-bloc info broken down so well. Even if it’s Wiki - what do we look up exactly to get the stats you claim?


206 posted on 08/01/2011 4:32:10 PM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 203 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel

You are right I overlooked “most”, but I don’t know anything about a “ping” list.


207 posted on 08/01/2011 4:39:44 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Bristol Palin's book "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far" became a New York Times, best seller.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 206 | View Replies]

To: kearnyirish2
They certainly ended the war; I guess they told somebody to do it.

You really do believe that kids run the world, it makes you wonder why we people out of our teens and twenties even vote, and why the kids don't just physically replace us throughout society, business, government and law.

208 posted on 08/01/2011 4:49:41 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Bristol Palin's book "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far" became a New York Times, best seller.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 202 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2756488/posts?page=32#32

I guess I just assumed because it seems wherever my ping list goes, you are, at least when it involves hippies. But, maybe you really do just actively seek out “babyboom” or such in the keyword lists. ;-)


209 posted on 08/01/2011 7:43:31 PM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 207 | View Replies]

To: rabscuttle385

“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.”

Oh not at all - they’ve taken care of that giving us CommieCare.

That’ll shift the balance.


210 posted on 08/01/2011 7:45:55 PM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel

I don’t do any of that, I just read posts, but I am discomfited by you so personalizing something, especially since I don’t even know who you are, it sounds almost like stalking, if you show up at a thread that I am on just make your posts and don’t get into cross threading.


211 posted on 08/01/2011 8:01:47 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Bristol Palin's book "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far" became a New York Times, best seller.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 209 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

Going to start the “stalking” nonsense, again, eh? Quit your libel. You make a lot more posts than I and you don’t find me on all your threads (I checked last time - months ago, mind you - that you accused me of stalking). I’m no “stalker”. Tell me, indeed, when was the last time I replied to you in a thread? That’s right - it’s been a long time.

I happen to be on the GenX ping list. As a result, I see you are always on these threads defending the hippies endlessly with innumerable posts. People can’t help notice and remember posters like that. As surely as people on Civil War-related threads can’t help notice and never forget “Non-Sequitur” (banned now) for the same reasons.


212 posted on 08/01/2011 9:06:31 PM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 211 | View Replies]

To: the OlLine Rebel

What ever it is just focus on the thread and try not to carry personal baggage from thread to thread.


213 posted on 08/01/2011 10:22:44 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Bristol Palin's book "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far" became a New York Times, best seller.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 212 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

The late sixties/early seventies were unique in how the older generation completely caved to the whims of the “youth”. I don’t believe WWII vets were the biggest fans of abortion, drug use, promiscuity, etc.

Don’t let the evidence stand in your way, though.


214 posted on 08/02/2011 2:18:35 AM PDT by kearnyirish2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 205 | View Replies]

To: kearnyirish2

The “evidence” is that you just don’t know history or reality and you live in some fantasy of children running America, you also seemed to have skipped an entire generation.

The Supreme Court was not making Court decisions based on the Republican voting youth and their little brothers and sisters in the 1960s and 70s.

The first election in which all boomers (the Reagan generation) were old enough to even vote for President was in 1984, they weren’t running America at all, yet you have them legalising abortion in the 1960s and then deciding Roe v Wade in 1973.


215 posted on 08/02/2011 8:18:22 AM PDT by ansel12 ( Bristol Palin's book "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far" became a New York Times, best seller.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 214 | View Replies]

To: rabscuttle385
I wasn't old enough to vote for LBJ, and if I had been able to vote, I would have voted for Goldwater. I never supported medicare or the war on poverty.

Using your logic, the current situation is all your fault; The resultant ObamaCare, Porkulus, etc. is now all on your shoulders because you voted for them.

Reap what you sow.

216 posted on 08/02/2011 8:31:02 AM PDT by greeneyes (Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 141-160161-180181-200201-216 last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson