I’ve written a piece called “‘Pennies from Heaven’: On American politics and our entitlement programs.” For generations, Social Security, in particular, has been known as “the third rail of American politics”: Touch it, and you will fry. But there will one day be a reckoning, right? As I say in my piece today, politicians are always “kicking the can down the road.” And when you run out of road? What then?
The United States is not the only country with this problem. I will quote from a New York Times report, out of Paris:
More than a million protesters, chanting slogans like “retirement before arthritis,” took to the streets throughout France on Thursday to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the legal age of retirement to 64 from 62.
That seems a minor reform, doesn’t it? From 62 to 64, in an era when people are living much longer than they once did? I recall something that Mark Steyn once said about the U.S. system. The creators of Social Security did not live in a time when, after retirement, people spent 30 years at the golf course. (And what a luxury, what a blessing, to do that.)
Further from the Times report:
Mr. Macron, who is in the first year of his second and last term, wants to push through an overhaul of what he views as an untenable pension system. He sees this as a core part of his legacy.
George W. Bush thought just the same. And he, too, devoted himself to pension reform, in the first year of his second and last term.
Who is opposing Macron?
Labor unions, from the extreme left to the moderate center, united behind the protests, as did often splintered left-of-center political parties. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the extreme-right National Rally party that has attracted growing support among the working class, also called for “an unjust reform” to be blocked.
That sounds like a winning coalition to me, I’m sorry to say. And we have the same Left–Right coalition, roughly, here in the United States.
In my piece, I walk down Memory Lane, to our 2000 presidential campaign, when Governor Bush said he was “runnin’ for a reason.” One big thing he wanted to do was face entitlements — to save the system from bankruptcy and ensure that future generations had pensions.
“I am here with a message for America and to put my opponent on notice,” said the candidate in May 2000. “The days of spreading fear and panic are over. The days of delaying, dividing, demagoguing are over. When I am elected, this generation and this president will solve Social Security.”
In his first inaugural address, he said, “We will reform Social Security and Medicare, sparing our children from struggles we have the power to prevent.” He got busy on this in the first part of his second term. He said he was spending his “political capital” — the capital earned from his reelection — on the effort. Yet no one, or virtually no one, was with him. When you “touch the third rail,” you do it on your own, baby.
There is an old saying: “No one will fix the roof while the sun is shining.” People wait until a storm comes, and then scramble up to the roof for an emergency repair. Will this work in the case of our entitlements? I suppose we’ll see.
According to the trustees of Social Security and Medicare, the funds will soon be insolvent. A little political courage would save us a world of grief. But no one wants to “speak truth to power.” And, in a democracy, the power lies with the people.
P.S. You may be wondering about the heading over this post. “When I’m 64” is a Beatles song, written by Paul McCartney when he was about 14.