Boomer Bust?
Published October 17, 2024
Ballooning national debt, unsustainable entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, and foreign policy failures are just a few of the concerning trends that were created or made worse under the presidential leadership of the Baby Boomer generation. As the Boomers extend their unprecedented occupation of the Oval Office into a fourth decade, Americans must openly debate these policy challenges, demand accountability and solutions from the next Boomer president, and weigh carefully the idea of generational accountability in public office. When has one generation governed past its prime and no longer represents the majority of the people?
Check out more on Generational Accountability and more from Bill Whalen:
- Watch GoodFellows "Ok Boomers" with special guest Victor Davis Hanson as he and hosts Bill Whalen, HR McMaster, Niall Ferguson, and John Cochrane discuss their generation's legacy here.
- Listen to “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Election Integrity" with Bill Whalen and Ben Ginsburg on Hoover's Matters of Policy and Politics podcast here.
- Read "As California Goes... So goes the House?" from Bill Whalen here.
The opinions expressed in this video are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University. © 2024 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.
>> Bill Whalen: America's presidential history is a tale of generational shifts, with each cohort leaving its mark on the nation's trajectory. Our first two presidents, Washington and Adams, and a majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, were all from the Liberty Generation that guided the republic through its arguably most vulnerable, informative years.
Fast forward to the lost generation born between 1883 and 1900. This generation steered America through World War II, the Great Depression, and the early years of the Cold War. They in turn passed the baton to the Greatest Generation born between 1908 and 1924. JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush 41, navigating America through the end of the Cold War, presiding over significant civil rights advancements, and even putting a man on the moon.
The Greatest Generations 32-year reign from 1961 to 1993 seemed a fitting capstone to their contributions. However, as we near the end of the 2024 election, we face an unprecedented scenario. Historically, generational leadership lasts around 30 years before the next generation comes of age and steps into the highest seat in government, but not so today.
The Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, have almost exclusively occupied the Oval Office since 1993 and threatened to extend their hold on the presidency into a fourth decade. Since Bill Clinton's inauguration, the Boomers tenure has already surpassed previous generational cycles, and the 2024 election offers no respite.
Both major candidates are Boomers, ensuring this generation's grip on power will extend for at least another four years. The extended Boomer dominance in the White House raises critical questions about generational accountability as well as the present and future challenges facing our nation. For it's under the Boomer's leadership that several concerning trends have emerged or worsened, putting America in a precarious position.
First, and perhaps most concerning and consequential, is our mounting national debt. Niall Ferguson, a historian and Hoover Senior Fellow, has authored what he calls Ferguson's Law, that any great power which spends more on interest payments towards the national debt than it does on defense will not stay great for very long.
The Habsburg monarchy, the Ottoman Empire, even the British empire all suffered this fate. Under the Buber's reign, the national debt has ballooned from $4 trillion in 1993 to $35 trillion in 2024 and growing. Ferguson's law will be put to the test this year, as the Congressional Budget Office has stated that debt interest will be 3.1% of America's GDP and defense spending only 3.0%.
Then there's entitlement reform, longer life expectancy, higher health care costs, and lack of political will to reform entitlement programs have made Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid unsustainable for future generations. And looking at bankruptcy unless elected leaders stop playing political football. Lastly, the United States under the Boomer generation has decidedly mixed foreign policy results.
While there have been success stories such as confronting the scourges of AIDS and malaria in Africa, failures in Somalia and Rwanda, the rise of ISIS, the seemingly forever wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the inability to thwart Putin's ambitions, and escalating tensions with China all plagued this generation's record.
The question is, can the next Boomer president break from these patterns and address these issues which their generation has either created or exacerbated? To tackle this dilemma, how about a Boomer Debate? Whether it's the two Boomer candidates or candidates from newer generations in future elections, the long-term consequences of Boomer policies are coming home to roost, and they must be debated openly and in the least partisan way before the damage is irreversible.
Most importantly, the idea of generational accountability needs to take root in the American psyche. While we talk about age limits for politicians, we must also consider the consequences when one generation remains in power too long and may no longer represent the majority of the country, its people, their interests, their perspectives, or their values.
It is imperative that Americans demand more from their Boomer candidates to ensure that the extended Boomer presidency becomes a period of reflection and correction, not delegation and procrastination. The next president, regardless of party, must commit to addressing the shortcomings of their generation's legacy in order to chart a course towards a more fiscally responsible, globally engaged, and enduring America.
Okay, Boomers?