Syndicated columnist and NPR essayist Matt Miller offers this
look at a future without Social Security reform:
Announcer: It’s "The NBC Primetime News" for
December 15, 2015. From New York, here’s anchor
Brian Williams.
Williams: Good evening, everybody. We’ve got a lot to
bring you tonight, starting with the continued protests
in Washington over Congress’ threat to cut Social
Security benefits on the eve of the new year. More
than 500,000 senior citizens and their families
remained camped out on the mall for a third
consecutive day as the president and congressional
leaders huddled to consider their next move. For now,
there’s been no violence, but protest leaders say they
want ironclad commitments before telling their gray
troops to disperse. For more, here’s NBC’s
Washington bureau chief, Lisa Myers.
Myers: Brian, the president and his top advisors spent
another day behind closed doors, looking for ways to
avert bigger waves of red ink brought on by the latest
projected surge in Social Security and Medicare
costs. A senior White House aide tells NBC News that an immediate cut in pension checks and even some
health benefits is on the table, while other advisors
are urging the president to enact a new federal sales
tax to close the gap. None of the options are pretty,
and from the look of top officials today, both parties
fear seniors will retaliate at the polls next November,
Brian.
Williams: Thanks, Lisa. Joining me now is the
president of the American Association of Retired
Persons, Susan Higgins. Ms. Higgins, your group has
organized what experts are calling the biggest protest
in American history. You’ve shut down the capital and
gotten the nation’s attention. What will it take to end
this standoff?
Higgins: Brian, from the start we’ve said that our only
objective was to make sure the government honored
its promise of a secure retirement. We need
guarantees — not pretty words, and not more
Washington talk about "complex circumstances," but
a signed pledge backed up by public statements that
let our 60 million members know they won’t lose a
penny of what’s owed them.
Williams: What about critics who say you’re
essentially holding the government hostage — and
that your demands will leave Uncle Sam with little
money for anything else?
Higgins: Brian, we view this as a matter of keeping
promises made to seniors who counted on this
money. You don’t pull the rug out after you make a
promise.
Williams: For analysis of this volatile situation, we go
now to our senior NBC news analyst and the man
celebrating his 24th year as host of NBC’s "Meet the
Press," Tim Russert. Tim, has there ever been
anything like this?
Russert: Brian, what we’re witnessing is the exercise
of raw political power the likes of which this town has
never seen. Just look at the numbers. As recently as
10 years ago AARP had only 35 million members and
was already considered an 800-pound gorilla. Well,
with all of us baby boomers now hitting our golden years, AARP’s membership has surged toward 60
million. There’s no question the senior lobby carries
the biggest stick in American politics. You saw it last
year when Congress cut school funding another 20
percent to keep the gene-repairing prescription drugs
program intact — even at a time when studies show
that millions of kids in big cities can’t read or write.
Last week the White House announced that the
number of Americans with no health coverage has
risen to a record 57 million, but the president has said
the budget crisis means there’s nothing the feds can
do about the situation.
Williams: Just 30 seconds before we need to go to a
break, Tim. What should Americans watching tonight
take away from this spectacle?
Russert: Brian, the one-thing officials have said to me
over and over this week is that this crunch was
entirely foreseeable. Former President Clinton told me
she should have pushed harder on her "unfinished
American agenda" from the start, instead of trying to
broaden her political base to make bolder moves
possible in a second term that never came. A top
White House advisor told me we should have been
revamping the "social contract" a decade ago so that
we’d be facing the inevitable showdown between old-age
entitlements and other social needs with basics
like universal health coverage, decent schools and a
living wage already viewed as a given by American
voters. As things stand, experts say it’s hard to see
how any of these other problems can get a hearing,
maybe for decades, while the nation digests all these
gray boomers. The refrain I keep hearing, Brian, is
that "we should have been dealing with all of this
much, much sooner. …"
