Riding on the backs of young adults

Young voters turned out in record numbers in the 2008 presidential election, the most since 1972, when 18-year-olds were first able to vote.

According to U.S. News, from a story published in Nov. 2008, "Up to 54.5 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 voted on Tuesday, just 1 percentage point shy of youth voter turnout's all-time high in 1972, according to preliminary reports. They made up a higher proportion of the electorate—18 percent—than the 65-and-older age category, which accounted for 16 percent.”

“And they leaned overwhelmingly toward the Democratic ticket. For every one vote cast for John McCain, two young people cast votes for Obama.”

Presumably, disaffection with the Republican Party, John McCain’s failure to capture the imagination of young voters, disenchantment with the war in Iraq and dismal job and career prospects, and the “hope and change” mantra of the Obama campaign fueled this surge of young voter support for Obama.

How ironic, then, after owing so much of his electoral victory to young adults, that he wod target the young to achieve his agenda, in two ways.

The first way was to design health care legislation afforded largely on the backs of young people, who will have choice snatched from them.

The second way is by ignoring another issue that looms larger each day; and left holding the bill will be our sons and daughters and grandchildren.

The first is the new health care legislation. The primary targets of the individual mandate are the young, some of whom may delay purchasing health insurance because 1) they’re currently healthy, and 2) they need or want the money for other things.

Not so fast, says the Obama administration: if we’re to provide health care to everyone, particularly those who can’t afford it, or those for whom health and illness is a big issue (say, senior citizens), then someone is going to have to pay for these privileges.

And therein lays the difference between a right and a privilege: rights are free; privileges must be paid for.

In this case, young adults will be compelled to purchase health insurance, whether they choose to or not. It’s the only way that it can be afforded, by exacting taxes or penalties on those who won’t on average break the bank, because the young get seriously ill far less often.

Seems like a crummy way to reward your political supporters. Presumably the betting is that either young adults won’t notice the new decline in their salary, or perhaps be altruistic enough to blithely ignore it.

The second issue that will be solved on the backs of young adults are benefits for older folk like me: Social Security and Medicare.

You’ve probably heard an oldster or two insisting that they paid into Social Security and Medicare for years, and now they’re simply collecting.

Only partly true: the benefits that I will collect from these entitlements will be more than I paid in throughout my career. Young people will pay for the rest of my coverage.

And here’s the secret that most politicians don’t dare mention: the demographics in the future will be a non-starter to continuing this Ponzi scheme. A growing cadre of older people can’t be sustained by a shrinking group of younger people, thanks to millions of separate personal decisions aided by birth control and abortion.

It can’t be afforded unless something major happens. And it is a political grenade whose pin has been pulled. Someone like Congressman Paul Ryan in Congress has the courage to run forward and deal with it, attempting to save everyone else, and he’s accused of rolling Grandma off a cliff?

And either it will happen now, which will be a bit easier, or it will happen later, when our collective backs are against the wall. The way we’re going, I’m betting on the latter course, because Obama and Co. don’t want to face the issue, particularly in an election year.

But political and, more importantly, moral courage demand that it be addressed, and soon.

Jerry LaVaute is a special writer for Heritage Media. Follow his “Pa’s Blog” at http://jlavaute.blogspot.com. He can be reached at glavaute@gmail.com or call 734-740-0062.