Kathleen Casey-Kirschling can kiss my...

Too much stupidity in one place to go unmentioned. Today in the Washington Post, Dana Milbank has an article about the first baby boomer to actually sign up for Social Security - Kathleen Casey-Kirschling. Let's take a quote from dear Kathleen and parse out the ignorance:

"Why should boomers who have earned it and who may need that extra support in their retirement -- for medicine, for food, for whatever -- why should they wait if they really don't have to?"

1. No one "earns" anything by paying FICA taxes during their working years. The whole premise of SS is that the current generation makes payments to the retired generation. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, your FICA taxes from back when you worked went to pay your parents SS. You do not have an "account", nor do you have any kind of lien on the government for your SS payments. What you have is a number of people like me who are currently paying FICA. Because there are so many of you baby boomers, Kathleen, and relatively few of us, we're going to have some issues coming up with the money you are expecting. But don't think that we "owe" you this money. The only reason we pay today is because 1) it's the law and 2) we have an implicit promise that our kids will pay us when we retire.

2. Why should you wait to take it, Kathleen? Because by waiting one or two more years, and by getting all the rest of your baby boomer friends to wait one or two more years, you can remove the financial issues facing Social Security. In other words, if you and your cohort could show an ounce of moderation and respect for other generations, you wouldn't have to worry about your grandkids getting Social Security. The fact is, Kathleen, that you really do have to wait. It's the responsible thing to do. But God forbid we acknowledge that the SS solvency issue (and Medicare even more so) is precisely your generation's "fault". There are lots of you. There are few of us working people. Either we pay more in taxes, or you retire later. Show we what impels us to have to choose higher taxation?

Kathleen continued:
Casey-Kirschling, speaking for the boomers, counseled confidence. "I have great hope," she said, that Social Security will be repaired for "my children's generation and certainly my grandchildren's."

Oh really, Kathleen? And is that because you are prepared to sacrifice either some of your benefits or your retirement age? No, you already said that you "earned" the right to go on SS right away. Make up your mind. Either you deserve your benefits and screw the rest of us, or you DO care about the future generations and you are prepared to act. Pick one.