Baby Boomers Are Starting To Retire & Collect Social Security

Immediately after the end of World War II, there was a huge increase in the number of babies being born in this country -- and that got that generation their nickname (Baby Boomers). The Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, a period of 19 years. Today, the oldest Baby Boomers are 68 years old and the youngest are 50 years old.

That means the Baby Boomers are now starting to reach retirement age -- with 61% of the 65 year olds, 66% of the 67 year olds, and 68% of the 68 year olds already out of the work force. Right-wing Republicans have been trying to scare Americans for several years now by talking about the size of the Baby Boomer generation (which admittedly is large), and claiming that this generation will "bankrupt" the Social Security system. Their hope is to create enough fear among younger Americans to let them damage Social Security by cutting benefits and raising the retirement age.

Don't believe them! They are lying -- and they are doing that to protect their real constituency, the rich, from having to pay as big a percentage of their income into FICA taxes as the working and middle classes currently pay. Currently, the rich pay a much smaller percentage than all other Americans pay, because the FICA tax is capped at a certain income (and that's just the way the Republicans like it).

Let me set a couple of things straight. The Baby Boomers have paid into the Social Security Trust Fund all of their working lives -- and they deserve to retire at the same age as previous retirees, and they deserve to be paid their full benefit. Anything less is a betrayal.

And the Baby Boomers are NOT going to bankrupt the Social Security system. The Social Security Trust Fund can continue to pay full benefits for about another 20 years, and after that, it can pay 80% of those benefits far into the future. It is in no danger of going bankrupt.

And the system can be easily fixed to allow the system to pay full benefits far into the future, without raising the retirement age or cutting retirement benefits. All Congress has to do is raise (or eliminate) the cap on the income subject to the FICA tax (commonly called the payroll tax). This would affect only the richest Americans -- and would not cost the working and middle classes a penny more in taxes.

The Republicans have never liked Social Security. They opposed it when it was created, and they have tried to abolish it since then. They know it is too popular right now to do away with it, so they are trying to chip away at it -- cutting benefits and raising the retirement age and damaging it a little bit at a time (until it is so bad that they can abolish it). Don't let them do it! Don't let them scare you into allowing them to destroy the federal system that has worked better than any other (and cut senior poverty from above 50% to below 10%).

NOTE -- The charts above were made from a new Gallup Poll done throughout 2014 of a random national sample of 134,168 adults, with only a 1 point margin of error.