The Boomers Are Going To Boom On Nov. 3rd.

The kitchen table I sit at sees this.

Or it could be yours. There’s a stack of bills on it, a calculator, and a pair of reading glasses somebody keeps misplacing. A lot of us sat at that table this year and did the math.

I did it just the other day. I kept hearing about all this help for seniors. Food help, tax help, programs made just for people our age. The articles made it sound like money was sitting there waiting for anybody over sixty to pick it up.

So I sat down and worked it out, line by line, with real numbers. And here’s what I found. The help is real. It’s just built for somebody else.

If your checks are very small, there’s a door open for you. If you’re well off, you don’t need a door. But if you worked your whole life, earned a modest pension, and draw your Social Security, you’re standing in the hallway. You make too much for the programs and not enough to stop worrying.

That’s the in-between crowd. And there are millions of us.

Our costs don’t stand still. The mortgage doesn’t shrink. The utility bill doesn’t care how old you are. Medicare takes its cut before the check ever lands. And every year, the price of just about everything climbs a little higher.

Now, Social Security does give us a raise each year. But here’s something most folks never hear. That raise is based on a price index built around working people, not retirees.

We spend more of our money on doctors, prescriptions and keeping a roof overhead. Those costs tend to climb faster than the index shows. There’s been a proposal for years to use a price index built for seniors. It has never passed.

So the raise shows up, and it’s already spent before it gets here.

And then there’s the word that gets under my skin. Some folks talk about Social Security like it’s a gift. Like it’s charity handed down to the old folks.

It’s not a gift. We paid for it. Every paycheck, every week, for forty or fifty years, that money came out before we ever saw it. The people who run the program call it an earned benefit, and that’s exactly what it is.

But here’s a hard truth you should know. Back in 1960, the Supreme Court ruled in a case called Flemming v. Nestor that we don’t hold a contract on those benefits. Congress can change the rules. We earned it fair and square, but it’s not locked in a safe with our name on it.

So what about the trust fund? You’ve probably heard it was raided.

Here’s how it actually works. For years, Social Security took in more than it paid out. By law, that extra money had to be loaned to the government in special Treasury bonds. The government spent it, the way it spends everything.

But those bonds are being paid back, with interest. Since 2021, Social Security has been cashing them in to keep paying full benefits. The money didn’t vanish. The problem is that it’s running out.

The bonds are expected to be gone sometime in the early-to-mid 2030s. After that, the money coming in would only cover about three-quarters to four-fifths of what’s owed. That means a cut, unless Congress acts.

And that’s the rub. Congress knows. They’ve known for decades.

The last time they made a big fix to Social Security was 1983. Think about that. More than forty years of warnings, reports and hearings, and the can keeps getting kicked down the road.

Last year a new law gave people over 65 an extra tax deduction. Supporters called it relief for retirees, and for some families it was. Critics pointed out that part of the tax on our benefits flows back into the trust fund, and cutting it takes money out. Social Security’s own actuary estimated it moves the shortfall date a little earlier.

Both of those things can be true at the same time. Relief today, and less in the tank tomorrow. That’s what happens when nobody fixes the engine and everybody argues about the paint.

So here we are. The in-between crowd, sitting at the kitchen table, doing the math, watching the costs climb and the fix never come.

And I’ll tell you what I think is coming. I think the boomers are going to boom.

History is on my side here. In a midterm, the voters who show up most are the older ones. We don’t skip it. We don’t forget. We grew up believing that voting is what you do, the same way you pay your bills and keep your word.

And when older voters feel something being done to them, they show up bigger. It’s happened before, against whichever party held the power at the time. The dragon wakes up, and it doesn’t ask which side of the aisle you sit on.

I want to be clear about something. This isn’t about a party. I’m not telling you who to vote for. That’s yours and nobody else’s.

A boomer on the right and a boomer on the left are sitting at the same kitchen table. They’re paying the same bills. They earned the same benefits. They’re watching the same clock run down on the same trust fund.

What they share is bigger than what splits them. And what they share is this: they’re not going to sit this one out.

So here’s my ask.

Check your registration. Deadlines come up fast in October in a lot of states. If you vote by mail, find out when to request your ballot and when it has to be back. If you vote in person, find out where and when your early voting runs.

Then go. Take your neighbor. Take your brother-in-law, even if he votes the other way. Especially if he votes the other way.

Because the one thing Washington has counted on for forty years is that we’ll complain at the kitchen table and stay home. They’ve gotten comfortable with that.

On November 3rd, let’s make them uncomfortable.

We earned it. We paid for it. And we still know how to show up.

The boomers are going to boom.

” Attic Thoughts”-library – Intelligent People Assume Nothing

This post was drafted with AI governed assistance and reviewed and directed by Michael S. Faust Sr. before publication.