Senator Russell B. Long (D-LA) was the longtime chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a master writer of tax bills. He loved to quote an old saying, "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree."
What Long meant, of course, is that everybody agrees we need more tax revenue but nobody wants to be taxed. Long has been dead for over a decade, but the truth of his aphorism is as great today as when he first uttered it.
An article in The Washington Post, written by Gen Xer Jim Tankersley, blames the baby boomers for our economic problems, especially those dealing with unaffordable entitlements - Social Security and Medicare. His solution, redolent of Sen. Long's wisdom, "Let's make them pay for it."
Not me, not you, them - the boomers. Tankersley's "fellow behind the tree" is everyone's favorite generational punching bag, the profligate baby boomers.
Boomers are now retiring; if history is any guide they will become compulsive voters. Good luck with putting the tax monkey on their back. Down that legislative path lie primary challenges and failures to reelect.
Tankersley criticizes GOP presidential aspirants for suggesting the problem will have to be borne by those yet to retire. The aspirants are forced to be political realists, Tankersley chooses not to be. Due diligence: the other DrC is a baby boomer.
