Impact of retiring Baby Boomers discussed

By Ed Koch

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 11:18 a.m.

A leading Baby Boomer expert says elected officials must stop treating Social Security as a "third rail" issue -- touch it and you're dead -- or there will be serious consequences when 76 million Americans start turning 65 in 2011.

"It is important for us to start thinking about the impact the Boomers will have as they move into their later years because the bulge of their numbers at retirement will create a pig-in-the-python situation," said Oklahoma University historian Steve Gillon, author of the 2004 book "Boomer Nation."

"Boomers have redefined culture at every phase of their lives. There is nothing to indicate they won't redefine old age."

Gillon, 47, will serve as a panelist at the American Association of Retired Persons 2011 Council, 9:30 a.m. Friday, at the organization's three-day convention at the Sands Expo Center.

Baby Boomers is the term that refers to those who were born between 1946, a year after World War II ended, and 1964.

Gillon says the issue is not to make immediate wide-sweeping changes but rather to "stimulate thought" so that gradual changes can be made to Social Security, the health care system and other aging-related programs to accommodate the glut of Baby Boomers who will utilize them.

"In 2011, I believe that age 65 will be less significant as a turning point in people's lives," he said. "Many boomers will continue to work and otherwise remain active. Because of improved medicine they will live longer and be healthier longer. They won't be going out to pasture anytime soon."

Gillon said elected officials can no longer avoid addressing what the Baby Boomers' demands likely will do to the Social Security system in seven years and beyond.

"Social Security is treated as the third rail of American politics, and so elected officials avoid the subject," he said, using a term that refers to the live rail of a subway track, the rail that can electrocute if touched.

"As a result, we have not had a serious national discussion about the issue. But we need to start educating the public about the difficult choices that will have to be made. We have to confront this serious demographic challenge."

Donna Brazile, who served as former Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign manager and also is a member of this year's AARP's 2011 Council, echoed that sentiment.

"The statistics point to trouble down the road as there will be a record number of people reaching the age of retirement," said Brazile, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and owner of a political consulting firm.

"More Americans today are living in debt and taking out second mortgages to pay for their children's education. They are worried about what they are going to live on. It's time for discussions to prepare for the future."

While Brazile and Gillon agree that a 90-minute session is not enough time to resolve the issue, she says it is "the beginning of a dialogue to transform our country over the next decade -- a wake up call for the crisis we will face in the next few years."

Christine Donohoo, an AARP official who helped formulate the panel, said the 2011 Council is designed more "to stimulate thought, not formulate policy."

"These are our thought leaders," she said. "We are creating a forum to look from different angles at the issues of a group of people that we are convinced will redefine retirement age."

"Estimates are that 43 percent of the current work force will reach 65 in the next 10 years. We have got to have a collective will as a nation to face up to the issues that will result from that."

The 2011 Council was launched in 2002 and the AARP plans to utilize it through 2011 with rotating guest panelists.

Gillon and Brazile are slated to be joined on this year's panel by Phil Bronstein, executive vice president and editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, and Mona Lisa Yuchengco, publisher of Filipinas Magazine, college professors Anita Hill and Leo Estrada, AARP Board member Jennie Chin Hansen and actress Cybill Shepherd, among others.

Past 2011 Council members have included journalist Carl Bernstein, actor Billy Baldwin, author Erica Jong and political strategist Mary Matalin.

The AARP convention is expected to draw up to 25,000 people. Members of the public who are not AARP members can attend for a $20 fee that covers all of the day sessions today through Saturday and admittance to the exhibit hall that will have about 350 exhibits.