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4A ♦ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2005 CsTf \ Houston Mome f (SW\t jjmmt&l OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Rex Gambill Foy S. Evans Managing Editor Editor Emeritus First baby boomer to turn 60 on Jan. 1; watch out By SEAN MUSSENDEN Media General News Service WASHINGTON - As if we haven’t spent quite enough time obsessing over all things baby boomer, now comes Jan. 1, 2006. On this day, the oldest sliver of the “me” generation turns 60, a milestone that will spark endless reflection on the boomers’ legacy. Revolutionized corpo rate America. Transformed Hollywood. Changing Washington. Enough already. When I think of boomers, pretty much the only thing I reflect on is my wallet. As in: how quickly the boomers will drain it dry. The boomers are getting dangerously close to retire ment age. They will begin drawing on Social Security in a few years. In a little more than a decade, there won’t be enough members of my generation - I’m smack between X and Y - pay ing into the system to sup port all the retired boomers taking money out. Future generations are looking at higher taxes or smaller ben efits than promised. By now, this problem should be obvious to every one. President Bush visited 29 states last year to sound the alarm about Social Security’s problems. And still his campaign to intro duce private accounts to the system failed miserably. His critics accused him of overdramatizing the impact of the baby-boomer retire ment wave, calling it a scare tactic to sell private accounts. His critics were wrong. Bush actually undersold the burden retired boomers will place on younger genera tions. That’s because he didn’t make Medicare’s problems a serious part of the conver sation. Haven’t heard much about Medicare’s rapidly approach ing financial woes? That’s because few in Washington are talking about it. The reality is that the boomer retirement wave will cause just as many problems for the massive senior health program as it will for Social Security, and for basically the same reasons. In both The New York limes (Idiotarian newspaper of record) vs. America 2005 was a banner year for the nation’s Idiotarian newspaper of record, The New York Times. What’s “Idiotarian”? Popular warblogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs (littlegreenfoot balls.com) and Pajamas Media (pajamasmedia.com) coined the useful term to describe stubborn blame- America ideologues hope lessly stuck in a pre-9/11 mindset. The Times cru saded tirelessly this year for the cut-and-run, troop undermining, Bush-bash ing, reality-denying cause. Let’s review: On July 6, Army reserve officer Phillip Carter authored a freelance op-ed for the Times calling on President Bush to promote military recruitment efforts. The next day, the paper was forced to admit that one of its editors had inserted misleading language into the piece against Carter’s wishes. The “correction”: “The Op-Ed page in some cases, seniors will milk out money faster than younger workers can replenish it. Medicare, though, has spe cial challenges. Rising health care costs and an expen sive new prescription drug benefit will make Medicare even harder to pay for in the future. Despite Bush’s focus on Social Security, bureau crats familiar with both programs say Medicare’s problems deserve the most attention. “We’re going to have to restructure Social Security and Medicare. And, frank ly, Social Security will be a lot easier than Medicare,” David Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investiga tive arm, said at a presiden tial forum on aging issues last month. “If there’s one thing that could bankrupt America, it’s health care. And it’s out of control.” In their most recent annual report on the health of Social Security and Medicare, the trustees that oversee both programs had this to say: “Medicare’s financial out look has deteriorated dra matically over the past five years and is now much worse than Social Security’s.” In 2017, Social Security will start paying out every year more than it takes in, and by 2041, boomers will drain all the money from the “trust fund” surplus the program has built up. Sounds bad, right? Medicare is worse. The cor nerstone of the program, Medicare Part A, which cov ers hospital stays, already pays out more than it takes in. And its trust fund sur plus likely will be exhausted by 2020 - two decades before Social Security’s trust fund runs dry. Unless these problems are addressed - and the sooner the better - the greatest boomer legacy will be the mountain of debt they leave to their kids and grandkids. (Thanks, Mom!) Unfortunately, the pros pect of a fix for either pro gram seems unlikely any time soon. Seniors love Social Security and Medicare and get very nervous when poli ticians talk about change. See MUSSENDEN, page 7A Michelle Malkin Columnist Creators Syndicate copies yesterday carried an incorrect version of an article about military recruitment. The writer, an Army reserve officer, did not say, ‘lmagine my surprise the other day when I received orders to report to Fort Campbell, Ky., next Sunday,’ nor did he characterize his recent call-up to active duty as the precursor to a ‘surprise tour of Iraq. ’ That language was added by an editor and was to have been removed before Apprehension, anticipation about new year We’ll turn the calendar tonight, bringing to a close another year. The evening will mean different things to differ ent people. There seems to be something about turning the calendar and welcom ing a new year that inspires many people to do some unusual or odd things. Some people believe a big party, stimulated with alco hol, is necessary. They like to bring in the new year with revelry and, in the eyes of some, an adolescent display of frivolity. Some people go to church. Some stay home and watch the shows on television ush ering in the New Year. There are many ways to observe the occasion. To each his own. I can’t recall when I stayed up on New Year’s Eve to see the new year come in. I am not a party person. So I go to bed at my usual time and wake up "Who needs a designated driver? ...I'll see you home!" limes editorial far from truth Editor: Your recent editorial criticizing the New York Times is basically far from the truth. President Richard M. Nixon and Watergate and the publication of the Pentagon Papers changed the history of our nation for the better. The recent scoop by the NYT on NSA spying on our own citizens is the latest probable unconstitutional act of this the article was published. Because of a production error, it was not. The Times regrets the error. ” Carter told Times ombuds man Byron Calame: “Those were not words I would have said. It left the impres sion that I was conscripted” when, in fact, Carter volun teered for active duty. Funny how the “produc tion errors” of the Times’ truth doctors always put the Bush administration and the war in the worst light. Not content to meddle with the words of a living soldier, the Times published a disgraceful distortion of a fallen soldier’s last words on Oct. 26. As reported in this column and in the news pages of the New York Post, Times reporter James Dao unapologetically abused the late Corporal Jeffrey B. Starr, whose letter to his girlfriend in case of death in Iraq was selectively edit ed to convey a bogus sense of “fatalism” for a massive WjfpWL IPPI Foy Evans Columnist foyevansl9@cox.net the next morning and find out that January came in on time. I prefer how I feel at that time to the way the party going celebrants feel. Most of the media (news papers, television and radio) will have recapped the past year for us ad nauseam. I am able to do without these recaps since I was there all year long to see and hear LETTERS TO THE EDITOR maniacal/monarchical presidency! From tortures at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, to secret CIA prisons all over the world. To CEOs of oil com panies secretly meeting in our Vice President Cheney’s office, the list of secretive wrongdoings is lengthy. A poorly planned, manned, and execut ed war in Iraq that Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall now tells us could go on for five to ten more years. And our increasingly autocratic, stubborn, president and his war with our liberal media who keeps trying to tie 9/11 to piece marking the anti-war movement’s “2,000 dead in Iraq” campaign. The Times added insult to injury by ignoring President Bush’s tribute to Starr on Nov. 30 during his Naval Academy speech defending the war in Iraq. After Starr died, Bush said, “a letter was found on his laptop computer. Here’s what he wrote. He said, ‘[l]f you’re reading this, then I’ve died in Iraq. I don’t regret going. Everybody dies, but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem con fusing why we’re in Iraq; it’s not to me. I’m here help ing these people so they can live the way we live, not to have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. Others have died for my freedom; now this is my mark.’” Stirring words deemed unfit to print by the Times. The Times did find space to print the year’s most insipid op-ed piece by paranoid Harvard student about these events first hand. So it will be out with the old, in with the new, regardless of how we wish to observe the occasion. I look forward to every new year. There’s appre hension and anticipation of what lies ahead. At least there is a feeling that, once again, we are starting over with a clean slate. It would be nice if we were. New year’s resolutions are a matter of choice. I never made resolutions, because the odds are that I would break them within a short time. How about resolving to lose weight? I would like to do that. But making a resolution to do it is a sure way to fail. The same for most resolu tions. It may make one feel good to make them, but I doubt that many people expect to keep them. I like to believe that I will Fatina Abdrabboh, who praised A 1 Gore for over coming America’s allegedly rampant anti-Muslim bias by picking up her car keys, which she dropped while running on a gym tread mill: “ ... Mr. Gore’s act repre sented all that I yearned for acceptance and acknowl edgment. ... 1 left the gym with a renewed sense of spir it, reassured that 1 belong to America and that America belongs to me. ” I kid you not. In June, Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame 111, pilot of downed American Airlines Flight 77, blew the whistle on plans by civil liberties zealots to turn Ground Zero in New York into a Blame America monument. On July 29, the Times edito rial page, stocked with lib erals who snort and stamp whenever their patriotism is questioned, slammed Burlingame and her sup THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL be a better person next year than I was during the past 12 months, but it will be a long time before I am able to pass judgment on that. Whether we consider the past year a good one or a bad one is a matter of per spective. There are many ways to decide. To some, hav ing gained greater wealth means the most. To some, having survived serious ill ness is reason enough to consider it a good year. To some, personal achieve ments mark the year as successful. It depends on the individual and perspec tive. The fact that I have reached this milestone in reasonably good health, have a loving family and good friends fills me with satisfaction that the past year has been a good one. I find it difficult to ask for more when the calendar is turned and we enter 2006. Iraq and to patriotism is rightly facing an increasingly, unhappy majority. We now know that GWB has no plan to extricate us from this unnec essary and unwinnable war. Your apparent advocacy of pseudo-patriotic, Machiaevellianism versus constitu tional methods of supporting anything our president does is disappointing, unrealistic, and will not fly for most of us! Frank W. Gadbois Warner Robins porters at Take Back the Memorial as “un-American” - for exercising their free speech rights. Yes, “un-American.” This from a newspaper that smeared female interroga tors at Guantanamo Bay as “sex workers,” sympatheti cally portrayed military deserters as “un-volun teers,” apologized for terror suspects and illegal aliens at every turn, enabled the Bush Derangement Syndrome driven crusade of the lying Joe Wilson, and recklessly endangered national secu rity by publishing illegally obtained information about classified counterterrorism programs. So, which side is The New York Times on? Let 2005 go down as the year the Gray Lady wrapped herself per manently in a White Flag. Michelle Malkin is author of the new book “Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild.” Her e-mail address is malkin@comcast.net.