I three-quarters expected this. He built the party; who’s better entitled to run? But I think it’s a mistake. He’s in a much better position to be the founder of the party. That would be the best role for him.
How are we going to retire the baby boomers? How are we going to save America from the great gray tidal wave heading toward us? We’re talking about a country of 50 Floridas. In a few years we’re going to double the number of people over 65, and triple or quadruple the number of people over 85. The New Deal has become obsolete – not because it was ill-founded. Hell, I think the New Deal was right on. But it has become actuarially impossible to sustain. When we extend life expectancy, we have to extend work expectancy.
If we wait until the baby boomers start to retire, we’re going to have to reduce every Social Security check by 30 percent – or [raise] the equivalent [in tax increases]. We’re going to be facing trillion-dollar yearly deficits; then in the 2030s, $2 trillion going up to $4 trillion. We are risking this whole country’s future. Lamm’s Law is that the earlier the solution, the less draconian the solution. The earlier we start, the less painful the remedy.
Over a period of 20 years, we should raise it to age 70, and allow people to start saving their own Social Security money. Today I met a woman working in a restaurant. She works two jobs, and she puts 15.3 percent of her salary into two systems [Social Security and Medicare] that pay more to some people in retirement than she makes working full time. I did not join the Democratic Party to blindly transfer money from the young to the old.
[S]ome cuts have to be made. Twenty percent of the millionaires in America are on Medicare. The average person retiring in 1996 gets a $100,000 subsidy from the next generation for Social Security and another $100,000 subsidy for Medicare. If they’re the poor elderly, God bless. I don’t resent it at all. But there’s an awful lot of Social Security going for cruises and golf fees. I like the Concord Coalition plan where [for those elderly earning] above $40,000 you slowly phase in either taxes or means-test the benefits.
If you really want to have generational warfare, all we have to do is nothing. You just wait and let this problem fester for a while. You will find a majority of minorities paying 15.3 percent of their salary into a system that supports mostly Anglo elderly who probably make more in retirement than a lot of these people make working.
To me it’s like Greek tragedy, where the chorus warns the actors on the stage. That’s what the bipartisan commission on entitlements did. That’s what the Medi- care trustees are doing – they’re the Greek chorus saying, ““You’ve got a hell of a problem. Do something about it.’’ And the actors, as in Greek tragedy, seem to not be listening. If I can play no other role, it’s as part of this. Let Bob Dole and Bill Clinton show me that I’m wrong.
All the time my liberal friends point to something and say, ““You can’t do entitlements. What about corporate welfare? What about the Pentagon?’’ I am so sick of hearing some of this. It’s avoidance. Is there surplus in the defense budget? I assume so. Am I for corporate welfare? No, I’m not, but it’s a dodge. It’s like saying I’m against foreign aid and the space program. Fine, be against them, but it’s not going to solve the problem. Everything has to be on the table.
It’s taxation without representation. My generation has been guilty of more taxation without rep- resentation than anybody since King George III. We are pre-spending the next generation’s money.
It worries me constantly. I’m a creative thinker. I think about what George Romney said – ““I was brainwashed.’’ I’m very aware of that danger, and I’m sure I will step in it. My strengths are my weaknesses.
The Republicans have subcontracted their social conscience to Ralph Reed. I’m really concerned that the Democrats are doing so little to prepare the country for the retirement of the baby boomers. When I hear Richard Gephardt talk about Medicare, he’s not talking about the same problem I’m talking about.
