I was out playing golf yesterday with my soon-to-be 91yo father. So, I came to Glibs too late to participate in the latest Boomer bashing thread. I did see that RC Dean had pointed out the programs of contention were put in place before the Boomers took the reins of politics. But no one followed up on that thought.
Since there seems to be a general lack of understanding of the history and politics of the US for the last 90-100 years, here are my inputs.
The Social Security Act was signed into law in August 1935, a few months before my father was born. So, Social Security is the product of my grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s generations (the Greatest Generation and the Lost Generation respectively). By the time my father was old enough to vote (Eisenhower ’56), a full generation of people had been collecting retirement benefits.
The system was and is self-protecting and self-propagating. It is the original Borg — you will be assimilated. And I am certain that it was designed that way on purpose — as most liberal programs are. It cannot be killed since retirees are the most reliable block of voters in the country, because 1) they have the time and 2) they are motivated (their lives literally depend on continued government payouts). The system was fully entrenched before my father ever had a chance to vote.
Medicare and Medicaid were added in 1965 before the boomers would get a chance to vote (the first boomers from ’46 would be eligible to vote in ’67 and would be voting in ’68). So, Medicare and Medicaid are the product of my father’s and grandfather’s generations (the Silent Generation and the Greatest Generation respectively). The horror that FDR created, LBJ amplified (don’t all serial killers go by their initials?).
You could argue that the Boomers (my generation) were at fault for the expansion of the welfare state during the 70s, but in reality most young people don’t vote. The retirees (the Greatest Generation) and working-class stiffs (of the Silent Generation) drove the liberal policy bandwagon for most of that time. {kinnath voted for the first time as a 19yo in ’76. I voted libertarian that election and every election after that until 2024 when I voted straight ticket Republican. Fuck the Democrats.} Boomers did not achieve real political power until closer to middle age.
Brave AI says:
Baby boomers began dominating U.S. politics in the late 1970s, and their political ascendancy accelerated significantly in the 1990s, as they assumed leadership roles in government.
Congressional Majority: Boomers became a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives following the 1998 midterm elections and attained a majority in the U.S. Senate in 2008.
Boomers’ grip on committee leadership tracked their rise to chamber majorities, since committee chairs are selected by seniority within the majority party:
By the early 2000s they held most House committee chairmanships, and by the 114th Congress (2015–2017) they made up 63% of the House.
Senate committees: Boomers first became the Senate majority in the 111th Congress (2009–2011), and from that
point onward they dominated Senate committee chairs. Their peak was the 114th Congress, when they held 62% of Senate seats.
Their dominance has been eroding: in the 118th Congress (2023), boomers fell below a combined majority of Congress, and in the current 119th Congress (2025–2026) they are no longer the largest generation in the House (Gen X now holds 41.7%), though they still hold a Senate majority at 60.6%.
Several key Senate committee chairs are now Gen Xers (e.g., Ted Cruz on Commerce, Mike Lee on Energy, Tom Cotton on Intelligence), while boomers like Susan Collins (Appropriations) and Mike Crapo (Finance) still hold others.
There is no doubt that Boomers propagated and expanded all the horrors of the liberal agenda. And now that half the Boomer cohort is retired and the other half is soon-to-be retired, you can bet they will follow along the traditional path and crush anyone that fucks with Social Security and Medicare. But it doesn’t actually matter, because it all collapses in the early 2030’s. That’s not the product of conspiracy. It’s pure fucking demographics. This particular Borg has a timebomb built into the core of it, and it cannot be disarmed. The only question is when the Borg self-destructs at this point.
I started paying FICA taxes in summer of ’73 when got my first job at McD’s. So, I have been paying for this shit for 53 years. And I am still working and still paying because I know what happens in 8 years or less.
The first three generations — the Lost, the Greatest, and the Silent — all got more out of the system than they put into it. The Boomers are the first generation to get less out of Social Security and Medicare than we put in. This has been known for as long as I have been working (all 53 fucking years). Nothing can be done. It is known as the 3rd Rail of Politics for a good reason. Anyone that does anything to reduce the benefits of retirees gets fried in the next election.
And so the time bomb keeps ticking.
I’ve been getting letters from the SSA for the last decade letting me know that my retirement benefits get cut by roughly one third in 2034 if Congress does nothing — they will do nothing. So, the Boomers are getting completely screwed by the system. If anyone thinks that a majority of the Boomers are going to decide to take an even smaller slice of the pie to somehow preserve the system that they paid into their entire lives, then they are idiots. It’s not going to happen.
As bad as it is for my generation, it is worse for my kids and grandkids. And I hate that and all the people that let it happen. The system blows up in the next decade. The political fallout will be devastating. The result will either be something very much like a socialist take over of the economy or a complete collapse of the welfare state. I think the odds favor the socialists.
So, the long term question is whether or not that leads to a shooting war.
Go ahead. Tell my how this is all my fault. I look forward to your comments.
I thought this was going to be a post about food….
Or at least about debates over food.
No. Ted Bundy, Ed Gein, Jeff Dahmer, Jessica Fletcher, they are full names, not initials.
Last night my daughter pushed the call button on her Minnie Mouse play phone and my some and answered it.
He instructed the pretend caller on how Micky Mouse was to be assinated, with instructions to double tap him after the initial strangling. He then told the ‘caller’ “who am I? I’m MKB” using his initials.
About three or four months after we named him my wife and I had a conversation that his initials were quite serial killer coded.
Apparently mob boss level. I’m glad he is shooting for upper management.
Taco Thursday: Trump cancels the livestream of Hasan’s execution because “many good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die”. Hey dipshit, it wasn’t mandatory.
That’s bullshit but sadly I figured it was going to get yanked.
Damn you Lucy.
As long as the audience continues to clap, Tinkerbell will soar.
Well, it’s certainly not *my* fault.
Hey dipshit, it wasn’t mandatory.
Everything not mandatory is prohibited.
Every President from Eisenhower to George HW served in WWII.*
*Carter was a middie.
Also fuck Brokaw for his “Greatest” bullshit.
Truman was a WW1 vet
Much appreciated – I didn’t pile on to that fight cuz I knew the shit show started earlier than the Boomers.
But Boomers are gonna feel the heat because they’re still here to kick around, I guess.
There isn’t enough money in America to keep SS propped up let alone all the other entitlements that are sucking the nation dry. I think it’s all going to come down crashing at once and “socialism” isn’t going to save it.
Let it crash and burn, and then pick up the pieces while taking credit for it. 90 years later, and Roosevelt saved us with the New Deal.
And when the Boomers are gone, they’ll turn on Generation X next. We’re already seeing some of that on the socials.
It’s all so transparently stupid and self-serving. “Wah, wah, you didn’t make life perfect for me Daddy!”
Once I learned how evil FDR was I knew it wasent the boomers fault but their parents and grandparents.
Bunch of commie fucks.
In 8 years, there will be a lot less baby boomers alive. The dead won’t be screwed. Gen X will get hosed and the younger generations will be gleeful. Champagne socialists will rejoice. Late state capitalism failed again, suck it!
Yeah. The boomers will get all the ill gotten gains their parents and grandparents set up.
The fourth generation will be screwed.
A lot like how so many family farms go bankrupt before making it to the fourth generation. Keep adding debt and get yours while you’re alive.
it’s all going to come down crashing at once and
“socialism”good intentions isn’t going to save it.The “parent reads from library book at school board meeting” thing is kinda passe, but this one is a trip.
You have to listen through the school board chair trying to shut him down, but Damn!!! That is some foul stuff.
And to think, we used to giggle when we looked up dirty words in the huge unabridged dictionary in the library.
https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2110473970491494840
Tell my how this is all my fault.
It’s all your fault.
Also- apropos of nothing…
When did we, as a “culture” come to not only irrationally and pathologically fear death but devote vast sums of money to prolonging its inevitable arrival?
Probably about around the time when we stopped believing in the afterlife, transcendence, and eternal salvation. I personally would argue that WWI was likely the catalyst, and the effects really started to take hold in the culture over the next thirty years or so.
You’ve been visiting Old Folks’ Homes again.
@Brooks There is a movement called Transhumanism that started in the 1990’s. This is when tech companies started seeing aging and disease as software bugs that could be fixed. A lot of those same people are pushing AI to become “sentient” so it can benevolently rule over us all.
As with most of the New Deal, SS was a bad deal, in the long run.
It really is a long term “temporary solution” .
We’re now putting the interest on the debt on a credit card. Never worked before.
I have a real issue online of commie tards responding to me with snark and then deleting their shit so it can’t be responded to.
This is the enemy.
I want Social Security to end, but I agree there is a “promise” to those who paid-in and there are no other examples of other pension funds being denied or reduced (aside from minor COLA reductions). However, there are a large number of people who frankly didn’t qualify for social security – including spouses who were given “half benefits” of the actual earner, outrageous COLA’s, and of course the mac-daddy of all errors re-indexing wages in the early 70’s.
A key differentiator of SS versus other programs is the payroll tax is a pay-for with stipulations that when it no longer covers there is an automatic benefit reduction. IMO, the fairest way forward is to let the benefit reductions go into effect and also begin opt-outs for younger workers (cue the actuaries to figure out the math).
Go ahead. Tell my how this is all my fault.
Well you see…er… circumstances being what they are… I got nothin.
This was good. As usual people tend to form opinions without a look at the facts. It’s also incredibly easy to debunk “If we just tax billionaires enough everything would be fine” with a few Google searches.