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Introduction: The Explosive Politics of Aging
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10905 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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5 / 1993 |
624 Words |
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Last November, a decisive majority of senior citizens helped put baby-boomer Bill Clinton in the White House. They backed Clinton because they expected him to protect Social Security, expand health benefits, and stimulate the economy without raising their taxes.
Five months into the Clinton administration, a growing number of America's elderly are wondering whether they did the right thing. The president has proposed that (1) taxes be raised on Social Security for couples whose income tops $31,000; (2) the age change from 65 to 67 for Social Security eligibility be speeded up; (3) Medicare recipients pay a higher percentage of physicians' bills: and (4) a vast array of new user taxes, including one on energy, be imposed that could increase a senior citizen's expenses by several hundred dollars a year.
Led by the mammoth, 33 million-member American Association of Retired Persons, senior citizens are fighting hard to hold on to and even expand entitlements, like a federal program for nursing and home care. But they face rising deficits, an enormous national debt, and growing resentment among younger Americans, many of whom see the elderly as a burden.
Is America on the brink of serious generational conflict? How will President Clinton resolve his campaign promises and economic reality? How is the Republican opposition reacting to this looming crisis?
The pieces are in place, says Washington Times correspondent Ralph Hallow, for a "war" between America's growing number of elderly and the dwindling proportion of workers. Politicians are scrambling to contain the crisis but often seem to act without thinking through their actions. That people emphatically prefer trimming spending to raising taxes was demonstrated when a Michigan district closed the public schools for summer vacation 45 days early after voters decisively rejected another property tax increase.
As Rita Ricardo-Campbell of the Hoover Institution points out, current young and middle-aged workers will pay more in Social Security taxes than they can expect to receive as benefits. One solution, she suggests, is to invest the fund in the private sector rather than be used to support the government's ever-growing spending. As for the health-care crisis, she suggests that rather than looking to managed care and price controls, reformers should examine the $100 billion annual administrative costs and the rigid link between employment and insurance coverage.
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