August 29, 2004 (NY Times Article)

To the Editor:

On Friday, Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned that programs like Social Security and Medicare might have to be scaled back when it is time for baby boomers to retire.

Mr. Greenspan said, "As a nation, we owe it to our retirees to promise only the benefits that can be delivered." He seems to be telling baby boomers: Don't expect too much in retirement. That should be a catalyst for action.

Issues like the trashing of a healthy budget surplus and an unwarranted, ultraexpensive Iraq war aside, our leaders should be reminded who fueled all that economic growth in the past five decades with their hard work, productivity and investment.

To suggest that baby boomers will just have to accept seeing their Social Security benefits further eroded because a robust economy has been squandered ignores the power in our ranks.

It may be time to remind our representatives that those who took to the streets over issues like Vietnam can do the same over being robbed of well-earned retirement benefits. We can also use our economic and investment clout in ways that will rattle the national economy as well. We have the numbers.

Daniel Smith
Denver, Aug. 27, 2004

NY Times source: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/opinion/l29greenspan.html

P.S.

It appears us "Baby Boomers" are in for a bit of a fight!

P.S.#2

Interesting NY Times article:
"Abolish the Electoral College"
Check it out: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/opinion/29sun1.html?8br

Two great articles, mebadgett. First off, it may be that we baby boomers will have to take our spreading girth and achey joints to the streets to protest what's happening to our SS benefits. I mean, hey, we paid in all these years. And just because a man we didn't elect to be president has mismanaged our money, we're supposed to accept less than we're entitled to? I DON'T THINK SO!

As for the second article about the electoral college, the electoral college must go. If 2000 taught us nothing else (and somehow it seems to not have taught us as a nation much), it should've hammered home the point that millions of votes are NOT counted in any given election, and not because Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris pulled a fast one. With each election, the votes of the non-majority party in every state are thrown in the waste basket. Something's wrong with that. Every vote does NOT count, and every vote is NOT equal under this system. In many states, such as New York, people in the large cities generally carry the vote. Is that fair to all the people who live in the suburban and rural areas of the state? Hardly. It also often happens that a state might be split fairly evenly--say 51%/49%--but 100% of the electoral votes go to the winning candidate. Clearly that's not right.

If not for the electoral college, Al Gore would be president today. We mustn't allow such a tragedy to happen again. Look what it got us--by many measures, the worst president the U.S. has ever had.

Congress should make doing away with the electoral college a high priority. But as long as the Reps. rule both houses, it ain't gonna happen.