As the country’s economic situation gets tighter and tighter, the impenetrable force protecting the sacrosanct entitlement programs of Social Security, Medicare and pensions has weakened. Lawmakers have realized that changes must be made, as Social Security alone will exhaust its trust funds by 2036, after which it would need $6.5 trillion over 75 years to pay all existing benefits. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), a lobbying giant which dictates the agenda for Medicare and Social Security, has a membership of 40-million strong, and will only increase as baby boomers continue to age and retire. In Frederick R. Lynch’s One Nation under AARP: The Fight over Medicare, Social Security, and America’s Future, the author places the onus on the baby boomer generation and its choice between political mobilization to fight cuts or by becoming absorbed into the AARP. Will a financially soluble compromise be reached between lawmakers, the public, and the AARP? How will the baby boomer generation handle its role as the country’s elders? Will they fight back and resist entitlement reductions, or play a role in entitlement reform for future generations?
Guest:
Frederick R. Lynch, government professor at Claremont McKenna College and author of One Nation under AARP: The Fight over Medicare, Social Security, and America’s Future