The Democrats Want Me Dead

by Ghost of John Brown

Well, I figure if the Democrats can say outlandish things about the Republicans wanting to kill people off, so can I. Except this time, I think I'm right about the headline. The Trustees for Medicare and Social Security came out with reports this week that show the two programs are running out of money even faster than thought last year. Medicare will run out of money in 2024 and Social Security will run dry in 2036. 

I was born in 1965, so Medicare will run out six years before I retire and Social Security will run out when I'm 71.  My dear wife, who is a few years older than I am, will see her Medicare taken away a couple years after she retires.  She won't have health care.  She may come down with some ailment, and we'll spend all our savings to take care of her.  Our kids will be in their mid 30's and will be paying half of their income to pay off the debt that the we have foisted on them, so they won't have any extra money to help us.  When I retire, all of our savings will be gone, and I won't have any health care.  When I'm 71 and Social Security runs out, I probably won't have a wife any more because she would have gone through 10 years without health care, my kids still won't have any extra money to take care of me because their taxes will probably be 60% by then, and I won't have any income or health care.  So yeah, the Democrats will want me to do a Jack Kevorkian at that point - it will just be easier on the economy.

Is the last paragraph a certain amount of hyperbole?  Sure.  Will it be that bad? I hope not. Could it be that bad - it sure could. I'm going to do what I can to save and not rely on the Government at that point.  It would be foolish for me to think that the Government can take care of me.  That said, I hope no one will begrudge me that I feel a slight amount of enmity when I pay my Social Security and Medicare tax every month.  The Government TELLS me that they will take care of me, but I know that it is a lie because they want my monthly taxes to support a couple of trust funds that aren't saving the money that I send to them so they can take care of me in the future.  They are using that money to pay off the Seniors that they lied to 30 years ago when they told them the same thing.

Back in 1993, I joined an organization called "Third Millennium".  It was a very short-lived organization that was "post partisan" before post partisan was cool.  It was made up of a bunch of Generation X'ers including Jonathan Karl of  ABC News and Deroy Murdock at National Review Online who were primarily focused on the future.  One of the chief goals of Third Millennium was the future of Social Security, which was probably the only issue that attracted me to the group.  Close to 20 years ago, some of us were screaming about the likely insolvency of Social Security and we wanted to have Congress change the system to allow it to be fully funded for all of our lifetimes.  As probably could have been predicted, Congress has put their collective heads in the sands for 20 years, and now we are staring down the barrel of insolvency.  Social Security will have the EXACT problems that we said it would 20 years ago.  Which brings me to say - "Told you so".  Click here to watch the July 14, 1993 press conference from Third Millennium.

Today, we have Harry Reid lying to us again saying that Social Security is fine.  He doesn't care.  By the time Medicare runs out and Social Security withers on the vine, he'll either be in a retirement community or would have died of old age.  He won't be around to see the devastation that he has foisted on us.

When Third Millenium was active, it was the mid to late 1990's.  The start of the organization began with dire calls about the budget, the deficit and the future of Social Security.  Then this thing called the "dot.com" bubble happened.  Everyone was flush with money and no-one cared anymore. The United States was invincible again. However, the fundamental problems of Social Security remained, and got worse.  In 1993, we could have implemented some rather modest changes to Social Security that would have largely solved the problem. Today, since we have dawdled for more that two decades on the issue, we have to talk about "Draconian" cuts, which truthfully aren't all that draconian.

Unlike the 1990's, the American population, not just the 20-somethings, understand that those promises made years ago won't last.  There is not going to be anything like the dot.com bubble to save us. Most economic forecasts predict that we will have little to no growth for several years. We need grown ups in Washington DC that unlike Harry Reid, are going to act their age and deal seriously with a serious issue.

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