Governors grapple with an aging America

[dArKeR]

Call for need to reshape tax codes, social services
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:33 p.m. ET July 18, 2004

SEATTLE - Gray hair is the least of it. Aging poses sharp challenges to those lucky enough to face it, from mobility to mental health to independence. As tens of millions of Americans approach the age of 65, the care and costs are increasingly critical to the nation.

States can take the initiative in transforming the elderly experience by reshaping health care, social services and tax codes to help the rapidly growing population of those 65 and older, governors agreed Sunday at the summer meeting of the National Governors Association.

Outside the downtown hotel, hundreds of disabled protesters in wheelchairs shut down traffic, seeking support from the governors to force Medicaid to more quickly turn to home-based long-term care, rather than relying on institutions. States have had to get waivers from federal officials to pursue such programs.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5459056

(Bush and the Repukes just spent all of our savings and put all of us into debt.)

[NMDemDist2]

1. i hear someone on UCTV last nite

saying that our 'greying' was nothing compared to Japan and Europe

because of that there will be less and less overseas investment money to finance our national debt as the countries will all need to run deficits also

[Sugarbleus]

2. I heard something about that a while back also...

that all the major industrialized nations were facing much of the same thing. I guess the "baby boom" wasn't just in America eh?

I said it before, I say it again: why didn't the leaders foresee these issues? Did they just think we'd all just stay young forever?

It seems that almost any nincompoop can be a better leader than the ones we've seen so far. How smart does one have to be to crash the whole worlds economy with an issue like this? Geeeeeez

[tlcandie]

8. They only foresaw things that had to do with THEIR income as in

raping resources and land grabbing, etc. They have absolutely no vested interest nor care for the every day American other than how they can better, easier, cheaper line their nests.

Those of us who were planning on some type of retirement will be left to work till we fall over dead or close to it, IF we can physically live up to it.

I remember several years ago my grandmother living on $300 a month and she had worked all of her life. Very sad state indeed.

[SoCalDem]

3. This is so pathetic, I can scarcely believe it...

Records have been kept for AGES... It's no state secret when these people were born.. Actuarial tables have been kept forever.. The fact that a group of people have reached a certain age...or WILL reach that age, is a KNOWN..

It irritates me to no end, when the legislators/governors/insurance companies etc act "surprised" when they realize that it's time for THEM to keep the promises made..

As a boomer, I am furious when people try to "blame" my generation for the fiscal trainwreck ahead when we start to retire..

We were no secret..you could read all about us..we were all the news.. we drove the advertising/manufacturing engine ...

We also PREPAID for our retirement through the huge increases in FICA , all during our young years...while we battled THREE major recessions, paid double digit interest for first homes...couple that with the fact that "real wages" have not increased for THIRTY years because of the inflationary spiral.. We hear about how inflation is no big deal... well it IS.. The reason the phantom rates are so low, is because they no longer measure it in "real world" terms..

The young people of today have every right to be pissed off as weel, but they do have one thing that we did not have.. They have the knowledge that they may not have SS to rely upon..but they are JUST STARTING their careers, and have the luxury of time on their side..

The boomers had no reason to doubt that SS would be there for us.. We paid more than was needed, and it was during our working careers that the "miracle of downsizing/outsourcing/union-busting" occured as well.. These things have destroyed the financial futures of a lot of us, throough no fault of our own.

The jobs that our fathers had, would support a family comfortably, WITH a stay-at-home Mom. OUR families did not have that luxury (well, I did..but most didn't).. Is it really a surprise that the divorce rate has gone skyhigh in our adult years?? The jobs that boomers have/had have been devalued over the decades, and when you are outsourced just as your kids are reads for college, the NEXT generation is sabotaged as well..

I am not suggesting some conspiracy against us, but the boomers are not to blame for this fiscal tsunami ahead of us all..The people we pay to plan for us, have let us all down.

[juajen]

4. I think Bill Clinton planned very well

It's this Administration that has spent all of our money using the SS fund and anything else they wanted. Why can't we sue the corrupt corporations for what they have taken from us, and take the Bush fortune too? From now on, I will call them THE PIRATES OF THE POTOMIC!!!!

[KDLarsen]

6. I'm on the other end..

.. and I couldn't agree more. In my family (mainly my dads side), 3 have just retired and 7 more will retire within 5-10 years. Fortunately, our family can just about cover up the losses, but I know that my generation is going to have to cover a lot of people.

What's different from the rest of the world (pretty much anyway), is that it's not just the SS my income will have to cover. I'll also have to cover payments to the hospitals, nursery homes etc.

And in the meanwhile, every politician on the left starts yelling & screaming & kicking (let me go on a rant please, I'm smack in the middle on the political scale) whenever a proposal is made that will result in either a reduction in what services can be offered to the taxpayers or that will result in job losses. Basically, anything that would mean that the taxation doesn't get out of hand in the near future. I used to have a parttime job (16½ hours pr week), and of the income I made, I was taxed just over 40%. My dad, when he was a boss at a big Danish credit company, payed in the region of 65-70%. Imagine if that was rise with 1-2-3-4%. It would get insane.

Yet just about every politician on the left, is talking about rolling back every initiative, the current Government have proposed and/or introduced.

I'm for SS, I'm for public (and free) hospitals, free education etc. - but we need to make sure that they're also available when there are less people to pay for it.

[SoCalDem]

7. Did your Dad live in Denmark then??

At least in Europe, even if one paid high tax rates, there was the guarantee of medical, pensions and inexpensive college.. We have none of those here in the US..

That's what people miss when they say that Europeans pay higher taxes because of their benefits.. Comparably, THEY have the better deal..

We are paying for the Cadillac here, but we are getting a used Yugo

[Sugarbleus]

9. You Go SCD!! Very, very Well said....

Boomer here with "bony fingers" and not much else...

[Swamp Rat]

5. Maybe they'll increase the draft age to 75 and "take care" of 'em that way

Bush&Co has certainly shown us that they do not give a fuck about Americans.

[Pastiche423]

10. WTG, crips!

Outside the downtown hotel, hundreds of disabled protesters in wheelchairs shut down traffic, seeking support from the governors to force Medicaid to more quickly turn to home-based long-term care, rather than relying on institutions. States have had to get waivers from federal officials to pursue such programs.

Wished I'd known about it. I would have been there!