I have listened to all the rhetoric of the problem that the so-called Baby boomers have caused and will cause any day now.  Think about it….the Boomers are the ones that made the middle class the strong entity that it use to be, it is not their fault that the rich have decised that it should destroy a whole class.  And now all the conservatives are worried that the retiring of the Boomers will cause yet more economic strife.  Gee….it is not the Boomers that worked their whole lives to have a descent retirement to have the government now tell them that they cannot.

But do not look now…it is the Boomers that are doing most of the suffering on Main Street.

However, there is one step that President Obama can take to boost the economy without going through Congress: He can reaffirm his support for Social Security and assure the baby boomers nearing retirement that he will not allow their benefits to be cut. If this huge cohort in their late 40s, 50s and early 60s knows that they can count on getting their promised benefits, they will feel more comfortable spending and supporting the economy at a time when it badly needs a boost.

Workers are likely to be especially fearful about the prospects of getting their Social Security benefits now, due to an all out assault on the program financed by billionaire banker Peter Peterson. Peterson has spent much of the last two decades trying to cut Social Security, Medicare, and other benefits for the elderly. He recently contributed a billion dollars to a foundation bearing his name that is primarily committed to this goal.
The idea of taking away Social Security benefits from baby boomers was always outrageous. After all, this is a generation that has paid into Social Security at the current 12.4 percent tax rate for almost their entire working life and will be forced to wait until age 66 or even 67 to get full benefits. Their average returns are projected to be lower than the generations that follow and far lower than the generations that preceded them.

If policy were responding to reality, then this massive redistribution from older generations to the young should cause the government to focus more attention on helping the elderly. But the agenda of Peter Peterson and his ilk never had anything to do with generational equity. The point was always to gut Social Security and Medicare. These programs stand out as key targets precisely because they are hugely effective and popular programs.

Before one jumps onto the Social Security bashing bandwagon…remember who put this country first on so many levels.