Governor Christie dramatically added his voice to those calling for entitlement reform yesterday; his comments brought me back to some earlier thinking I had on this.
The entitlement debate (to the extent there is one) is subtely changing with the demographics. As more Americans or my age or younger (who are skeptical about Social Security’s survival) entering the voting populus, entitlements’ sacrosanct status disappears.
That said, I think there’s more to it than mere skepticism. Most of us are aware that Social Security and Medicare is not sustainably funded, i.e., we are not getting out what we pay in. Funding decisions have repeatedly been made independent of the incoming revenue, even after the 1983 rework.
Fact is, our parents are taking out what we put it, and we’re reliant upon what our children will contribute. That’s actually been the case since the beginning, when FDR first proposed Social Security to help impoverished seniors immediately. While the idea may have been to put it on a generationally sustainable footing, politics has repeatedly intervened to prevent that. Today, Social Security and Medicare remain what they always were: a government-run generational transfer.
Truth be told, I don’t mind helping my dad retire (Mom passed away four and a half years ago); I’m somewhat upset about the four or five bureaucrats that get hired along the way, but that’s a different discussion.
What I am not willing to do is force my kids to get whacked with massive tax increases to pay for my retirement. The idea that my children should have to postpone their dreams or families of their own just so I can afford to come by often enough to remind them how much better I had it at their age simply doesn’t work for me.
I expect that many more American parents my age have or will come to the same conclusion.
We hear a lot of politicians who hide behind “the children” to justify this or that vote, but in this case, entitlement reform really is about the children: it’s about making sure their American Dream isn’t crushed by taxes used to augment our retirement.
