The American Spectator

AND LET’S NOT DISREGARD the looming (and increasingly inevitable) financial disaster that will strike when swarms of baby boomers storm the pay window to collect what they’ve been promised. The politicians in Washington and American interest groups spent the first half of 2005 debating the creeping crisis as it relates to Social Security and whether we can or should do anything about it. President Bush and some Republicans wanted to introduce personal retirement accounts. Democrats (sadly with the help of more than a few RINO’s) demonized the plan. But what is most notable about the debate is that the Democrats’ official position was that we had nothing to worry about. Don’t be fooled by Republican tricks, they told Americans. Everything is going to be just fine.

This false sense of, ahem, security, over the years has resulted in millions of soon-to-be-on-the-dole Boomers making the disastrous decision to not put money away for themselves. And so now we have the most prosperous generation in human history prepared to retire without a penny to their names, fully convinced that the government checks are on their way; “guaranteed” in a “lock box,” as the liberal parlance goes.

But what happens when the bill comes due? Ask the city fathers in Duluth, Minnesota. Since 1983, that city has promised lifetime health care for all retired municipal workers, their spouses and their children up to age 26. The result? Well, according to the New York Times:

Now, replace “Duluth, Minnesota” with “the United States” and “retired municipal employees” with “everyone” and you begin to see the sheer heartlessness of the liberals’ empty promises. Many retiring Boomers will be turned away at the pay window. Still others will receive something much smaller than they were promised. And the rest of us are going to have to pay more in taxes.

There’s liberal compassion for you.

If Karl Rove and the Republicans pursue this mean meme throughout 2006, I hope they extend it past trite anecdotes about liberal tomfoolery. They ought to make the point finally and convincingly that liberal policies break hearts and destroy lives.