The Boomers Hit 62
Time magazine picks up on Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer's theme that presidential candidates are not addressing the senior issues, that Time agrees "will begin to hit during the first term of whoever gets elected President in November. Not that you'll hear much talk about that on the campaign trail."
Article by Justin Fox of TIME
They're turning 62 this month, the first of the baby boomers are. Adorable, aren't they, as they hum along to the Beach Boys on their iPods and dream of Davy Crockett coonskin caps? In February the 100,000 or so of these January 1946 babies who opted for early retirement will get their first Social Security checks (averaging between $900 and $1,000 a month), marking the beginning of a demographic wave that will boost the program's rolls from 50 million to 80 million over the next two decades. Not so adorable, eh?
You've heard about the pending retirement of the boomers before, of course. You've also heard that Social Security faces some big funding problems. The two have less to do with each other than you might think. Social Security's insolvency remains a hypothetical threat decades into the future. But because of the particular way its funding was rearranged by Congress in 1983, the rest of the Federal Government, as well as taxpayers, will begin feeling the cost of the boomers' retirement in just three or four years. ...
Something will have to give. Big changes in Social Security itself seem out of the question, so federal taxes other than payroll taxes will have to go up, government spending outside of Social Security will have to be cut, or budget deficits will grow. Or, most likely, a combination of all three. And it will begin to hit during the first term of whoever gets elected President in November. Not that you'll hear much talk about that on the campaign trail.
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