What Bill Maher got wrong about spending on young vs old: Everything.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-bill-maher-20140210,0,1569408.story#axzz2sxbQMSha

Funny guy, Bill Maher. And he got lots of yuks on his HBO show Friday with a riff on government spending on our seniors vs. our children.
"In the battle for government giveaways," he said, "we have to stop thinking in terms of rich versus poor, or black versus white, and admit it's really a war between the young and the old. And the old are winning." (An accurate transcript is here.)

He cited these statistics about federal spending, citing Harper's Magazine as the source: "Federal yearly spending per child: $3,822. Federal yearly spending per senior: $25,455."

He continued: "Seniors keep asking, what kind of world are we leaving for our grandkids? Well, one where Head Start, nutrition assistance, and child welfare are being cut. These days, when Grandpa finds a quarter behind your ear, he keeps it." (Cue audience laughter.)

Close followers of fiscal policy will recognize these figures as familiar weapons in the "generational theft" argument. The implication, as Maher parroted it quite accurately, is that all that money the government spends on seniors is the reason child services -- Head Start, school lunches, etc. -- are being impoverished. We addressed this argument, and these statistics, a year ago. The time plainly has come for a refresher course, because the argument is a con job.

Maher, pay attention....

[Scuba]

1. His worst segement ever. The real money goes to corporate welfare. He somehow missed that.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

4. no. he's had much worse than that.

and Medicare/Medicaid funds from Federal Government make up the largest slice of our federal budget.

[VanillaRhapsody]

5. I loved it! I thought it was brilliant...the first to explain this truth....

[Demo_Chris]

32. Not even close. Maher is essentially correct...

Whether it is fair to condemn seniors is another matter. Some, seniors mostly, say no. Others, pretty much everyone else -- the poor saps stuck cleaning up the wreckage and debt the boomers are leaving behind -- already know the answer.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

2. doesn't change the fact that voting dynamics cause older Americans to vote their self-interest

at the expense of the interest of children.

[trof]

18. Yeah. I'm 72. No kids in school. I voted for a penny increase in sales tax...

to help our local schools.
And yes, I know sales taxes are regressive.
But our schools are in deep shit and it was a band-aide.
Hey, it's Alabama.

[rhett o rick]

28. Not as far as I know. Do you have any sources to back that up? nm

[Pretzel_Warrior]

29. yeah, here you go. and this is just one report heading into 2012 elections

The older "Silent Generation" tend to be whiter, favor Republicans on most every social and economic issue EXCEPT for Social Security (and probably Medicare).

http://www.people-press.org/2011/11/03/the-generation-gap-and-the-2012-election-3/

[Luminous Animal]

3. There is a lot of good stuff there including links to other good stuff.

[DURHAM D]

6. Seems that Bill is concerned about his 35 and under demographic so

he is playing the "generational war" card. Given that he is almost 60 that makes sense given that the youngsters see him as a relic from the 20th century.

otoh - He is and always has been an ass.

[Dawgs]

7. This article completely missed Bill's point.

It was about hypocrisy and voting against ones best interest, not spending for seniors versus spending for youth.

Am I the only one that actually watched the segment?

[Auggie]

12. +1

[QuestForSense]

13. Looks like it.

He took way too long to make his point. I couldn't bear to watch and clicked off, which I suspect occurred more often than not.

[Dawgs]

14. Don't disagree. It wasn't one of his better shows. n/t

[jehop61]

8. I'm amazed

that he would side with those that say we're takers, when we paid into insurance for old age. Let a new war, a war on the elderly begin! Paul Ryan is so proud.

[Enthusiast]

9. K&R! Excellent article. I nearly always support Bill. But on this, he is dead wrong.

Read the article.

[progressoid]

10. I thought it was more of a comedy vehicle to make penis pump jokes.

[IAmKirak]

11. Maher is a Liebertarian, so he'll get it wrong more often than right.

[flamingdem]

25. +1 Libertarians can't think straight

Though Maher is usually more of a Democrat from what I remember.

[flamingdem]

26. +1 Libertarians can't think straight

Though Maher is usually more of a Democrat from what I remember.

[IAmKirak]

31. I think so too. I'm bummed that he got this wrong.

Although I have to admit the context is somewhat different when you consider all government assistance vs. federal only. I don't think people think of it in those terms.

[rurallib]

15. be sure to tell us whenhe apologizes

but I doubt that will happen

[Hoyt]

16. Maher is right to some degree. More money needs to go to those who will be working to pay our SS.

Not saying it should come from elderly, but if Congress isn't going to take some from Defense, increased taxes on higher incomes, etc., we better be prepared for cuts down the road. The youth are in for some really tough times, and Maher made a good point. I'm listening.

[Tx4obama]

17. The Maher VIDEO on the link below

Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017174477

[CFLDem]

19. Can't argue with the man.

The q-tips and their crony politicians are looking to take everything with 'em to the grave.

[Madam Mossfern]

20. He doesn't mention that a majority

of property taxes go to schools (children). I found the show to be more offensive than usual. The woman guest that made the puking motion at the thought of older people having libidos was obnoxious. The tape of the show needs to be saved and played back to her in thirty years...maybe even twenty.

The larger outrage should be that penis pumps are covered while birth control isn't.

[840high]

21. I'm happy to say

I never watch him. Find him obnoxious.

[dorkulon]

22. Maher veers wildly and often between clever and just plain misinformed.

You'd think he'd pay a little more attention, or at least pay someone else to do his homework for him.

[A Simple Game]

23. And as long as we are fighting each other we leave the 1% alone. Thanks Bill n/t

[Demo_Chris]

33. Which age segment do you think has all the money? nt

[A Simple Game]

34. I'm sure the 1% include all ages but we mostly think of the elders as the ones

in control of the money. But it's not about age it's about privilege.

[Th1onein]

24. As time goes on, I'm getting more and more disgusted with Maher and his views.

He's about to go the way of Dennis Miller, has-been.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

27. thnx for the mystery hearts...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

30. I felt he was talking about the Tea Baggers out there getting government handouts.

[Sirveri]

35. Pretty sure the message of that skit was that the young should vote.

Yeah, generational war blah blah blah. But why do they get the money, because they fucking vote, and that was the entire point of his spiel. If you want money, become an important and DEPENDABLE voting block, and politicians will actually do what you want. Hell, you tell a house member you can deliver him 500 votes in his district, and he'll pick up the phone for you EVERY TIME, it's not fucking rocket science.

You want to talk generational war, well gee, the elders have control of the majority of the wealth and the control of levers of politics, and the white and 50+ make up a huge chunk of the GOP base. The GOP loves to screw over the younger generation. If you're young, and you're seeing how your parents had it versus how YOU have it now, you might think there was a war going on too. Fortunately this is a liberal board, so I'm sure I won't have any members showing up to tell me how they had to work super hard for it, or how it wasn't like that. I could probably fairly quickly search the site to find plenty of references to people who went to college having to only work a single summer for it though. Meanwhile this generation gets to work while schooling, and piling up 10-20k/yr in tuition debts that can never be discharged, while the class load for their degrees gets loaded with more and more garbage, all for a piece of paper that might get you a raise from 8/hr to 12/hr, IF you're lucky enough to even get a job. And who set that system up, pretty sure they're older than the young who couldn't even vote when these decisions and laws were put in place.

It's cool though, Elizabeth Warren gets it, Bernie Sanders probably gets it too, so I know there are certainly more than a few of them out there. But own that shit, you look at the tea party rallies, and it's a bunch of old dumb ass white people. That's what is fucking the place up right now. Old dumb ass white people, aka the GOP. You know what's going to happen in the end, these old white rich fuckers are going to screw the system up so fucking badly that the system itself will break. And then it'll be up to the young poor fuckers to put it back together. I hope to God you get someone like me to put it back together, because I actually give a shit about people around me (and I'm basically a Democratic socialist like Bernie Sanders), but who knows, you might get some libertarian nutjob or worse; a tea totaling vegetarian failed arts student with Daddy issues that causes him to have problems with Judaism. But hey, the rich bastards have always landed on top in this country, guess they think the French revolution can't happen here.