Keywords or Terms: Retirees;
Baby-boomers; Reforming Social Security and Medicare; Governor Chris Christie;
Retirees and Senior Citizens; Tanked stocks and bonds; Recession and convoluted
derivatives; Boeing Corporation; Bridgate; Mayor of Hoboken; New Jersey Public Pension Reversals by Courts; and, FBI interviews and criminal investigation.
As a public servant and
member of a country club a while back, I met two great couples; both retirees
and former engineers with the BOEING Corporation, before they threw in the
towel and substituted their engineering gabs for golf clubs and sweet river
boat cigars. Unlike the rest of their friends in nursing homes, these retirees
hardly depended on their social security benefits; however, they both swore
that Medicare and Medicaid have been a life-saver. Without Medicare, I would be
bankrupt considering the cost of keeping my wife and self alive after two
by-pass heart surgeries, said one. These two couples vote; and they do so
religiously every two or four years, or whenever there is a vote to be cast at
the precinct. In fact, many of their friends, age mates and former colleagues,
at home and in nursing homes, have one singular purpose and objective, to
prevent any politician, any person if you ask them, from messing with Social
Security and Medicare. Take the last statement as a mantra or assured
commitment as long as these age group lives.
These committed Baby
boomers are about to meet, 2016
Republican candidate for the White House, Garden State governor, Chris Christie;
with his message of entitlement reforms. The governor is about to inform these
retirees that their long earned entitlement needs a tweaking; or probably, eradication.
Speaking with a round-table of policy analysts, Governor Christie intoned that`
he will like to make overhauling of Medicare, Social Security and other
entitlement programs as the center piece of his presidential campaign. A
politically risky theme that will not only shock the two retirees or poke a finger in their nose; but
will set in motion an avalanche of retirees’ interest, including a few who
consider torching Social Security and Medicare, the holy grail of
social-welfare programs, a no-go area for any presidential aspirant. This is
probably one reason, many who heard about Governor Christie’s campaign for 2016
White House, wondered what in the world is the Republican former US Attorney for the State of New Jersey, with a guaranteed monthly pension and subsidized
health care package attempting to do to America’s senior citizens: “Mess with
the holy grail of entitlement programs?”
When I raised this alert
with the two former Boeing engineers at the Church the other day, all I got was
a somber, head shaking over the possibility of Governor Chris Christie getting
their vote. In fact, one of them went as far as saying: Republicans like every
now and again to mess with the old and elderly, the unfortunate and the
helpless. This time around, they are going to get it! If you ask me what “it”
means, I’ll just say, stay tuned. Though the nation had long been challenged
with sustaining these social welfare programs for a very long time for
generations of Americans who are retired, retiring or waiting to collect part,
if not all their contribution to the system, a young brassy and probably flamboyant
Republican candidate for the White House oval office wants to use them as puns.
Early in our 2008-2011 recession, some Wall Street analysts and economists
reminiscent over what would have happened if the proposal to privatize social
security during George W. Bush (43rds) Presidency had materialized. Had that
proposal materialized, many of our senior citizens, who lost a lot of their
investment portfolios due to the recession and the bungled real estate market
derivatives, will have resorted to the soup kitchen for sustenance. Many of our
seniors and retirees still remember the fear they had on their faces, and the
cloud of uncertainty that beclouded their future, as under-performing investments stock had turned to wastelands, about the time President Obama was
taking office; with several stock portfolio and bonds rated close to junk by
Moody’s. This is the same issue Mr. Chris Christie is about to re-visit once
again as he shoots for the White House oval office in 2016.
Though divestment in social
security contribution and handing over prior contribution to the system were seen as foregone conclusions during the last debate under another Republican
White House, with a proposal allowing individual employee to invest
part of their contributions in the stock market, very few at that time and even
today, believe the proposal was a better alternative than the current
arrangement. It defied logic, why a discredited proposal; or probably another
complex economic postulation is going to be advanced by another Republican
candidate; or Chris Christie’s campaign team, as a way forward for reforming
Social Security, Medicare, and any other entitlement program. Frustration from
the experience of the last recession is probably still fresh on the minds of
many baby boomers; and any proposal, coming out of a Republican candidate, is
probably going to raise an eye brow, if not derail any advancement by a
seemingly interminable presidential candidate, Governor Chris Christie of the State of New Jersey.
Still the conclusion by
Christi’s handlers and political advisers is: indeed, it is possible to advance
the reform of Social Security and Medicare, despite the resentments and
oppositions to those ventures at this time; and, still win the White House. A
complaint that gained credence during George Bush era was that Social Security
was about to go bankrupt and to shore it up, it was necessary to allow
employees to take out their contributions while still employed and invest them
in stocks or bond portfolio. In hindsight, was this a good proposal or was it
not? Are the clumsiness and fraud in the financial sector that nearly brought
the nation to her knees, wouldn't have done damage to the psyche of investors
who would have lost huge sums of money just before the economy tanked? With the
insistent and continued attack on Dodd-Frank reforming the financial sector by Congressional Republicans, do these people not know that Americans are wiser
and can read between the lines?
Governor Christi seems to
be making a statement, Social Security and Medicare need reform; and embracing the question, what would America do about it? Reforming Social Security and
Medicare is long overdue and as a candidate for the Republican Party nomination, I am
sending notices to friends and foes, that, though a former President failed to
accomplish that needed reform, I am bringing in my bravado and New Jersey
brashness to shake things up. Really? What America would want answered are: 1)
whatever happened to the pension cut proposal for New Jersey’s public pension
system? Did a judge not overturn the scheme to balance your state’s budget on
the backs of retirees? 2) Whatever happened to the case of the closure of
access lanes on George Washington Bridge – is it still part of a traffic study?
3) How is the reformer-crusader thing working for you – after Mayor of Hoboken
insisted your office pressurized her to approve big development projects to your
cronies? 4) How about your self-deluded mythology that you are a bipartisan
problem solver? 5) is corruption not still well and alive in New Jersey, with
all the news about your launching a PAC, are the self-interest groups already
contributing, and expecting you to rob their backs, just as you did in your
nomination to become the first inexperienced US Attorney prosecutor for the State of New Jersey? and, 6) How is the FBI interview
and possible criminal investigation coming on?
One of the greatest
difficulties of our time is the challenge of dealing with probably
corruptible public servants. No one is alleging that the great Governor of New Jersey
is corruptible, because of the political landscape in his state; however, there
are some actions taken by the self-styled reformer governor of the garden state
that beg for scrutiny. The cloud over Governor’s Chris Christie’s handling of some
issues in his state, probably will serve as a fodder for many who are hearing
his speeches and ambition for the White House oval office. We may not discover
any fishy thing about some issues of directives from the New Jersey’s governor’s
office; however, there are enough suspicion to believe that there is more to
the campaign message to reform the bed crust of social program in United
States. There is more to a Presidential aspirant who would like to balance the state or federal budget on the back of the elderly and fixed income earners.
The way Governor Christie
has handled the Bridge gate scandal, and the way in which many away from his State consider his brash bravado, have already reduced his clout as a viable
Republican nominee. There is no sign at this moment that he is not beleaguered by
past executive actions that call his ability to run a White house squarely and
fairly. The consequences of many of his past actions in position of power, are hardly forgotten by
those who had suffered tremendously from Christie’s executive decisions, inaction or actions. For these and other reasons, it seems
rather unlikely that we are going to get his proposed reform to Social
Security and Medicare; because, he is very unlikely to be the Republican flag bearer,
with Jeb Bush in the race. Now, to my compatriot retirees, let’s just let him make all
his noises, while we get back to our golf game and smoking our river boat
cigars!
No comments:
Post a Comment