The Generation Gap

By Richard Lacayo

Whatever budget agreement finally emerges from Congress and the White House, it can be counted on to continue the rapid growth in spending for Social Security and other programs for those 65 and older. Which means that it is almost certain to widen the gap between what the government spends on the elderly and what it spends on children.

Nearly half of all nonmilitary federal spending is devoted to people 65 and over. That in itself is hardly objectionable. For many years, the elderly had ; the nation's highest rate of poverty, a situation no caring society should tolerate. But since 1983 they have had the lowest, thanks largely to federal largesse. The problem is that spending on the elderly has become indiscriminate. Unlike most programs targeted at the young, which are open only to the poor, virtually none of the spending on the old is similarly means-tested. It goes equally to millionaires and to the poorest widow. Yet while only 5% of the elderly have incomes below the official poverty level of $5,947 for a single person and $7,501 for a couple, 1 child in 5 lives in poverty. Even some senior citizens' groups have started paying lip service to the need to trim spending on affluent older people to free up funds for nutrition, schooling and health care for impoverished kids. One obvious way: subjecting Social Security and Medicare to means-testing so that benefits would be pegged to a recipient's ability to pay for the services independently. Another option is to fully tax Social Security benefits for those earning more than a certain amount (say $40,000). This would protect the poor while curbing government handouts to those who hardly need them.

Such suggestions, however, go unheard in the storm of protest that erupts whenever anyone even raises these ideas. Politicians would sooner face Iraqi tanks than irate seniors, whose favorite form of low-impact aerobics is pulling the lever in voting booths. Nearly 61% of Americans 65 and over voted in 1986, compared with about 22% of those between the ages of 18 and 24. Meanwhile, the American Association of Retired Persons, with 31 million members and a 1988 budget of $236 million, is among the most powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill. Alongside it is the even more militant National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Last year the 5 million-member organization led the successful fight to repeal the surtax that Congress had imposed on the Social Security benefits of wealthier recipients to finance catastrophic health insurance for all older people.

Few in Congress have forgotten the moment during the surtax fight when a crowd of Chicago retirees mobbed the car of Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. To avoid being mobbed in the same way on Election Day, Congress has declined to inflict much pain on its older constituents. As for children -- they don't vote.

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With reporting by Dan Goodgame/Washington