A different take on Medicare, Social Security

This year, the first baby boomers are celebrating their 65th birthday, and their generational birthday/retirement parties will continue until 2029 when the last of them, those born in 1964, reach 65. Seventy-six million in all. There will be aging baby boomers around, devouring monthly Social Security checks and Medicare payments, if there still are such things, well into the second half of the century.Significantly, the last of the boomers will be 65 during the centennial of the 1929 stock market crash. But unless we do something about the Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid payments these retirees will be receiving between now and then, the 1929 Depression will have to relinquish its place in history as our worst economic catastrophe. That’s why David Walker’s views on these two great economic burdens that our elected representatives and presidents have lacked the courage to confront deserve some attention. Walker was the head of the General Accountability Office, the nation’s chief auditor, under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush and he’s said to be interested in becoming the next U.S. senator from Connecticut.“Social Security reform is a layup, much easier than Medicare,” Walker told The Wall Street Journal. He believes “gradual increases in the retirement age, a modest change in cost-of-living payments and raising the cap on income subject to payroll taxes would solve its long-term problems.” The key seems to be the Social Security retirement age, which has been untouchable since it was fixed by the New Deal in 1935. Retirement at 65 was quite reasonable then, when the average American lived to 61. Now, the lifespan is 78 and quickly heading toward 80 and beyond.Yet, to our congressmen-for-life like John Larson and Rosa DeLauro, even proposals for reform are derided as attacks on “the sacred contract that we have with the people,” as Larson would have it.Medicare’s crisis was exacerbated by the 2003 prescription drug bill, according to Walker, and it led to his decision to resign as comptroller general five years before the end of his 15-year term. “The true costs of that were hidden from both Congress and the people. The real liability is some $8 trillion.” With the drug bill, George W. Bush increased existing Medicare obligations nearly 40 percent over the next 75 years, Walker said in a 60 Minutes interview last year.A Republican, but hardly a partisan, Walker sees the need for a combination of additional taxes, restructuring Medicare’s promises and cutting other spending to retain Medicare. “We’re going to have to dramatically and fundamentally reform our health-care system in installments over the next 20 years and if we don’t, it could bankrupt America.”Since leaving the government, Walker has been president of the Peterson Foundation, which was created to raise awareness of the crisis pending in the nation’s near bankrupt entitlement programs. He would like to see the president have line item veto power over the budget and the introduction of private sector accounting standards — the GAAP system endorsed by Dannel Malloy when he ran for governor — extended to pensions, health programs and environmental costs, but doesn’t see too much hope for any of that in today’s Congress.Incumbency is a real obstacle to change, in Walker’s view. “Members of Congress ensure they have gerrymandered seats where they pick the voters rather than the voters picking them.” He would support a constitutional amendment forbidding congressional candidates from taking money from people who can’t vote for them, thereby cutting back on out-of-state special interest money.Having moved to Connecticut and bought Chris Shays’ house in Bridgeport last year, Walker is thinking about running for Joe Lieberman’s Senate seat. The bad news is he’d probably run as a Republican when he should really run as an independent. But should he run and even lose, he’d challenge the other Senate candidates, like Susan Bysiewicz, Linda McMahon and Chris Murphy to deal with the hard issues he’s talking about and they tend to ignore. Simsbury resident Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. Email him at dahles@hotmail.com.