So Ryan is coming out with his proposal to eliminate Medicare and Medicaid. The details are sketchy at this point, and I’m not someone to deny that something has to be done and thus dismiss a proposal out of hand. Nor am I a Democrat looking for partisan advantage, or someone unconcerned with the deficit or the cost of government.
But I already know Paul Ryan and the Republicans are a fraud because no sacrifices will be imposed, and no changes will be required, for those age 55 and older. Which means those born in 1956 or earlier. Which means means those who were 17 in 1973, the year wages peaked for most American workers. The richest generations in American history, the first to leave those coming after worse off in the private sector, the ones that created all those deficits and debts and unfunded pension obligations in the public sector, the ones who wanted more senior spending and less in taxes, Generation Greed, gives back nothing. And there is a barely an acknowledgement of what this means in a moral sense. The plan is for the distinction between those under and over 55 never to be acknowledged, discussed and justified. With a help of the same media that is run by the same generation as government — and even the Tea Party. So entitled is Generation Greed that it is demands not only to get more benefits at the expense of those coming after, but also to have this hidden so they don’t feel bad about it. I’ll bet they’ll even say they are “doing it for the children.”
When will those under 55 wake up and start using the term Generation Greed for those older? Add the non-greedy members of Generation Greed to those younger and you have the vast majority. But what you get is an unwillingness to acknowledge what the (perhaps originally Silent) majority of their generation is like by those older, and apathy by those younger. Does that mean they are getting what they deserve? Or that they are easily manipulated?
Will one other person, anywhere, say “we’re prepared to consider any changes, provided they apply equally to everyone?” Anyone else I mean. Is it even allowable to talk about it? I’m under a partial ban from a transportation website for using the term “Generation Greed,” and pointing out the generational equity aspects of different public policy choices. The ethical dimensions of those choices. Not for making personal attacks on individuals — other people do that, but not me. For using the term “Generation Greed.” (Any post with that word is blocked).
Well, Paul Ryan and the Republicans certainly think they are Generation Greed. In fact, they are counting on it. I said a long time ago that no one born after 1973 should ever vote for a Republican at the national level again, and if they want a small government party they’ll have to start a new one. There isn’t much reason to vote for the Democrats other, mind you, but at the national level they have been merely passively evil not actively evil.
I’ll say it again. It is not necessarily morally wrong to enact public policies that make it easier for those who are old and harder on those who are young, because the young have other advantages. But only if those policies are sustainable, and if those who are now old were willing to make similar sacrifices when they were young, and those who are now young can expect similar benefits when they are old.
Paul Ryan now says the current set of benefits for senior benefits is not sustainable. That future seniors will have to face a private company telling them it isn’t willing to pay for their care, and other private companies telling them they won’t accept them as new customers because of pre-existing conditions. My answer to him is this: if we can’t afford to do it for everyone indefinately, we can’t afford to do it for anyone today. Including today’s seniors, and members of Congress.
I don’t want to confuse the main point of this post by also pointing out that the goal of making Medicaid a block grant is for states to be able to attract businesses and the wealthy by cutting their own benefits, then provide their residents with care by putting them on a bus to New York when they get sick. That’s a whole additional issue that no one will talk about. The greedy appeal to Generation Greed is enough evil for a Monday morning.