Ryan & Romney Want To SPLIT Baby Boomer Vote...Divide Us Into Haves and Have Nots

Save Our Benefits...Benefits WE PAID FOR!

If you were born between the years of 1946 and 1964 you are a Baby Boomer.

If you are a Baby Boomer, you have PAID INTO Medicare & Social Security your entire working life. Sadly, the Federal Government over our working life has mismanaged our money, have borrowed greatly from the Social Security Fund, and now that it is time for us to collect what we have already saved for, our government wants to rewrite the rules in a way that will cheat us out of our benefits.

If you look at the Romney/Ryan plan to fix the problem, they want to divide the Baby Boomers into the haves and have not's as they protect the benefits for some, while taking the benefits away from others.  Listen to Ryan out on the campaign trail, and he says, "If you are over 55 nothing will change for you, you will receive your full benefits as you should.  I am 56, was born in 1956...what about the Baby Boomers who were born from 1957-1964?  If a line is going to be drawn in the sand, if you are going to change the way benefits are tallied, if you are going to change Medicare into a voucher system, shouldn't the line in the sand be January 1, 1965?

Taking a yearly average of 4 million births during the Baby Boomer time span of 1957-1964, Ryan and Romney would deny Medicare as we know it today to 32 million (about 40 percent of us) Baby Boomers, despite the fact that those born in 1964 have paid into the system for approximately 28 years as of the writing of this article, the Federal Government taking deductions out of our pay checks each and every pay period for a period of three decades or longer.  Imagine one brother or sister having Medicare Coverage that they have paid for, while a slightly younger sibling Baby Boomer is given a voucher (coupon) and told, "You are on your own."

If Romney and Ryan are going to strip away this paid for benefit, are they going to refund all the money (with interest) that the have nots have paid into the system they are now being denied access too?  What about Social Security...the age which we can collect has already been pushed back, and now both Romney and Ryan want to see that age pushed back again, even though we were promised by the government that if we paid into Social Security at a higher rate (percentage of our income that is paid into Social Security was GREATLY INCREASED), we could retire and collect full Social Security at the age of 64...they want to raise it to 67 and 70.

If someone is 55, if that someone has paid into Medicare for some 35 years, has planned on having Medicare in their old age, is it fair to suddenly pull the rug out from under them because government bureaucrats and elected politicians mismanaged the funds in such a way that there is not enough money to pay out the benefits as promised?  We bailed out banks, we bailed out Wall Street, we bailed out the auto industry, we bailed out AIG, but want to abandon our duty to 32 million Americans who played by the rules, who paid into the system their entire working careers?  Really?  We want to divide the largest group of American citizens we have in the name of winning an election, splitting the vote.

Wake up Seniors...Romney/Ryan wants your vote, so you are being told that your benefits are secure.  What about our benefits...those of us who are ALMOST IN YOUR SHOES who are being told that the Medicare we have counted on is going to be traded in for VOUCHERS!  What about one for all and all for one?  There are 79 Million Baby Boomers, and that is (bar none) the largest voting block in America, and if there ever was a time for us to all stand as one to protect Medicare, that time is now!

A vote for Romney as the next president is a vote to deny some 32 Million Baby Boomers the Medicare that we have EARNED...are you as a Baby Boomer born in or before 1957 going to stand with all Baby Boomers, or are you willing to turn your back on those born after you because YOU GET YOURS?

Mitt Romney...Everything Corporations Make Eventually Goes To People...BLINK!

At the Iowa State Fair, Mitt Romney, presidential wannabe Billionaire responds to higher taxes on Corporations with the quote, "Everything Corporations Make Eventually Goes Too People."



Curious here Mitt...what people? The riches three percent of America's population that control over ninety percent of America's private wealth? People like yourself? Looking at the fact your response came in response to a query on the government meeting its responsibility and promises as relates to the social programs of Social Security and Medicare, is it your position that cutting benefits that citizens have already earned, already paid for should be cut rather than taxing the uber rich?



Isn't it the lower and middle class who work day in and day out, who do the HEAVY LIFTING that create those profits for corporations, with those profits then being given to only a very small percentage of people at the top of the food chain? I would greatly enjoy providing you an opportunity to explain yourself, your statement, here in our small rural hamlet of Mountaindale NY.

The Roller Coaster That is The Dow The Fault Of Congress

Down triple digits for two days, then up triple digits, then down again triple digits...what will today's opening on Wall Street bring us, and is there anywhere that we as Americans can feel safe in putting our hard earned dollars? More importantly, is much of what is happening in the economy today more about systematically stripping away the Baby Boomer generations wealth and assets for future generations rather than us as a nation surviving a sluggish down turn in the economy? Has our government, and the Uber rich decided the promises made to 79 million Baby Boomers simply to costly to keep? Has it become politically expedient to put the retirement safety nets that we as Baby Boomers have paid for on the chopping block in the name of reducing the federal debt, and more importantly is there a target painted on the backs of every Baby Boomer in America...all seventy nine million of us?



A great deal of Wall Streets roller coaster ride in the past few weeks can be attributed to the actions (or lack thereof) of our elected officials in Washington DC as relates to the raising of the debt ceiling. The Republicans are insistent that there be no new taxes on the job creators, and that the federal deficit must be addressed through entitlement reforms...most specifically, they want to reduce Social Security and Medicare payouts to America's seniors....those on the rolls now, and those about to go on to the rolls(79 million Baby Boomers). Most young people are more than ready to embrace this plan which will cut these benefits back, as they believe it is unfair that they will be forced to pick up the tab for our retirements. That belief and the desire to cut our EARNED BENEFITS is simply wrong sighted, stinky thinking that should not be allowed to continue.



Go back to 1983 and the Greenspan Commission who's report saw Congress enact legislation that increased what we as Baby Boomers paid into the Social Security System, and decreased our benefits significantly...IE, the retirement age in that legislation was moved back from the age of 62 to the age of 65, and the percentage of money taken out of our paychecks was greatly increased. It was also around this time that we as Baby Boomers were sold on the concept of putting money into our own retirement accounts. The basic concept sold to us by our government was, "accept these changes, put money into your retirement accounts, and between the two of those retirement income streams, your Golden Years will be lived comfortably. We bought into the deal, accepted the cuts in our Social Security, accepted the increased costs, and started putting money into our 401K's.



Despite these changes, Congress realized as early as 1996 that the monies being collected from our paychecks would not be enough to meet future financial commitments to retirees unless those collected monies were in some fashion invested into the private sector...despite this reality, nothing was done to invest the money, but instead Congress robbed the Social Security Trust Fund, leaving worthless IOU's in the till, simply ignoring the bubble they knew would burst. Now the time has come to pay the piper, 79 million Baby Boomers have or are about to retire, and just as happened in 1983, Congress realizes they have a serious problem in the immediate here and now, can no longer kick the ball down the field to be dealt with at a later date.



Medicare and Social Security is a benefit we have prepaid for. It is like our car insurance, our home owners insurance, a policy there for when we need it, and according to the rules, our premiums are PAID IN FULL through forced payroll deductions. Is it now fair to come to us as citizens who have played by the rules and say, "We are going to cut your Social Security benefits, reduce the health benefits you have access to through the Medicare program"?



The average American lives to the age of 78...the Social Security reforms enacted back in 1983 effectively saw our collecting of benefits cut from an average of 16 years to 13 years based on the average life expectancy. Pushing the retirement age back another two years to the age of 67 drops that number to 11 years. Does not take a Mathematician to figure out the 1983 overhaul to Social Security slashed our benefits by around 20 percent, and that the changes Congress is wanted to implement now slash our benefits in totality by almost 1/3, while both the new proposals and old see us paying a lot more into the system while getting a lot less out of it. Is it fair to reduce the federal deficit by robbing seniors of their entitlements and their dignity?



Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...it's time that our United States Congress sets aside their party line bickering, time for them to get down to doing the peoples business, including meeting their obligations to our citizens. The Republicans steadfast refusal to allow taxes on the uber rich combined with their efforts to tie debt reduction to the lifting of the debt ceiling crashed the market once again, destroying our 401K's in the progress. They raised the debt ceiling so that America could meet its financial obligations to foreign nations (like China and Russian), but when it comes to meeting our nation's obligations to its own citizens (79 million Baby Boomers) they want to escape their moral and legal responsibility to us by passing a law that will rob us of our benefits...that is wrong, and cannot be accepted. If we as American citizens can be expected to accept the pain necessary to cover our moral and legal responsibilities to foreign nations, surely we as a nation also have the same responsibility too fulfil the contractual obligations we made to our 79 million Baby Boomers?



Let us as a nation deal with our debt problems, let us take the steps necessary to live within our means, but in reducing our debt as a nation, let us not turn our back on citizens who have earned their Social Security and Medicare benefits, have paid for them in full over the course of their entire working lives.



Editorial Opinion of Sherwood Martinelli