Boomers: Kennedy Calls, Is It Our Last Chance For Greatness?

It was 60 years ago this month that President John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most stirring inauguration speeches in our nation's history.

His line, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," was just one of many eloquent calls in that speech for the United States to embark on a new frontier.

Now, six decades later, as Baby Boomers enter retirement age, we must ask themselves... Did we do what we set out to do for this country?

I'm afraid the answer at the point is a resounding no. In fact, our generation is on the verge of being a disappointing failure. Some pundits are even starting to call us "The Worst Generation."

To be certain, we started out quickly. In the 1960s and 1970s, we led the civil rights movement and the battle for women's equality. We blazed the environmental trail and revolutionized music. We stopped a war and ended the military draft. We even got the voting age reduced to 18.

No small accomplishments. That's for sure.

However, something happened after President Richard Nixon resigned and Baby Boomers entered the work force and began raising families.

We turned inward. We became self-centered. We stopped thinking about what was good for society and focused on what was good for us. The zeal we engineered for worthy causes became passion for making money and looking out for ourselves.

We remain strident. Of that, there is no doubt. The righteous approach we had protesting the Vietnam War and fighting for equal rights has manifested itself into the divisive political debate that permeates our nation. No matter what side of the fence you're on, anyone who disagrees with you is someone worth hating.

The 16 years that our two Boomer presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, ruled the executive branch were an incredibly divisive decade and a half. Our country hasn't been this violently split since 1968.

We were at the helm when the worst financial crisis in 80 years hit our nation in 2008. Before that, we were spending money we didn't have and making profits by doing nothing more than shuffling papers between corporations.

We can't even see past the mirror when it comes to Social Security. There are 78 million of us. The oldest of our generation are turning 65 this year. There simply aren't enough younger working people to finance our retirement even if take our full share as soon as we're eligible.

For the sake of the nation, Baby Boomers should agree to smaller Social Security payments and take them at a later age, perhaps 70.

However, I see no evidence that is happening. Boomers have already eagerly starting cashing in when they turned 62. We are on course to crush Social Security as well as the Medicare system.

We are at a precipice, Boomers. If we continue down this path, we drag down the ravine a country we have already seriously steered off the proper course.

In my book, "10,000 Days," I laid out what I believe is a change of attitude and a route Baby Boomers can follow the next 30 years to redeem our generation and sail our ship of state into waters that are navigable for the generations behind us.

Alas, in the two years since that book was self-published, I see no sign of change. No groundswell to return to our activist roots. No hint we are changing our ways.

The hour is late, Baby Boomers, but we still have time. We can heed President Kennedy's call and see what we can do for our country.

Baby Boomers and Health Care

I am presenting a guest blog in this spot since it's been awhile since I've written anything.

This one is on a topic important to all of us aging Baby Boomers. What is going to happen with health care reform?

The blog is written by Barbara O'Brien, who has made a name for herself blogging about political and health care issues. You can learn more about her at barbaraobrien@maacenter.org

Will Congress Repeal Health Care Reform?

By Barbara O'Brien

As soon as Republicans knew they had won a majority of House seats in the midterm elections, GOP leaders vowed to repeal health care reform. Can they do this? And should they?

Frankly, chances that the health care reform bill could be repealed completely are remote, especially since such repeal would have to override President Obama's veto, and the Senate still has a Democratic majority.

House Republicans say they have some tricks up their sleeves, such as refusing to provide funds in the budget to implement health care reform. However, provisions of the law that will expand Medicaid and help subsidize private insurance won't kick in until 2014. Until then, there's not much the House can do to the budget to stop health care reform from going forward, short of defunding the entire Health and Human Services department.

Another "trick" might be to dismantle the bill piece by piece. One provision that many people want to remove is the individual mandate, which will require most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a tax penalty. This provision also kicks in in 2014, and it's one that Baby Boomers in particular will want to fight to keep.

Here's why: Beginning in 2014, private insurance companies will no longer be able to refuse to insure someone because of a pre-existing condition. But without an individual mandate, there will be no incentive for younger and healthier people to purchase health insurance until the time comes when they need it. This means those left in the insurance "risk pool" will be older, and that drives up the cost of insurance.

By the time we reach 50, nearly all of us have "pre-existing conditions." Some of our conditions are common, and some are not -- mesothelioma, for example, is rarely diagnosed in patients younger than 50. And without Medicare or other good insurance, mesothelioma treatment would be financially devastating.

But without the individual mandate requiring that healthier people share in the cost of insuring all of us, the health insurance premium bills for people aged 50 to 65 will be ruinous. We can scrap health care reform entirely, of course, but keep in mind that if you lose your insurance before you reach Medicare age you may not be able to purchase insurance at all, at any price, if you have a pre-existing condition.

Our Disastrous Decade

The cover of Time magazine this week sums it up pretty well.
“The Decade From Hell.”
The magazine’s editors are detailing the years 2000 to 2009, the first decade of the 21st century that will mercifully come to an end when this month closes out.
They are calling it one of the worst decades in our nation’s history. And with good reason.
It began with the bitterly fought 2000 presidential election that split the country in two… a gap that doesn’t appear to have closed much.
It was quickly followed by the terrorists’ murderous assaults on Sept. 11, 2001.
That led to the Afghanistan invasion and then the Iraq war, two conflicts that continue to drag on.
In between, we suffered through the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, the bankruptcies of Enron, General Motors and other large companies, the fatal fall-to-Earth of the space shuttle Columbia, the collapse of the housing market, the meltdown of our economy, the Bernie Madoff scandal.
Need I go on?
This disastrous decade unfolded while Baby Boomers were at the helm. Our generation entered 2000 between the ages of 36 and 54. We exit between the ages of 46 and 64.
Those are prime years. Those are the years a generation usually has control of industry, government and society.
We did. And, frankly, we made a mess.
This is going to take years to clean up. The two generations right behind us are the ones that will probably do most of the sweeping and repair work.
Baby Boomers, we need to atone for this debacle.
First, we can admit we blew it. We drove the nation into a ditch. We should apologize.
Then, we can look forward. As I said in my book, we have 30 productive years ahead of us. We have 10,000 days to make things better.
What we didn’t do when we were middle-aged, we can make up for when we are older.
It’s time to become senior statesmen of our society. To set a good example for the younger generations. To volunteer. To help fix things like Social Security and the health-care system. To be good grandparents.
We can’t undo this past decade. But we can make the next decade a much better one.