Atlantic writer Charley Locke says Baby Boomers have caught the very best that America can give them. Now they’re about to catch a case of Trumponomics.
“They were born in an era of unprecedented economic growth and stability,” writes Locke in the Atlantic. “College was affordable, and they graduated in a thriving job market. They were the first generation to reap the full benefits of a golden age of medical innovations: birth control, robotic surgery, the mapping of the human genome, effective cancer treatments, [and] Ozempic.”
But recent policy changes proposed by President Donald Trump are promising to douse that parade.
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“If you’re in your 60s or 70s, what the Trump administration has done means more insecurity for your assets in your 401(k), more insecurity about sources of long-term care, and, for the first time, insecurity about your Social Security benefits,” said New School labor economist Teresa Ghilarducci. “It’s a triple threat.”
The biggest threat to Boomers in the second Trump administration is the president’s plan to overhaul Social Security, which provides benefits to nearly nine out of 10 Americans ages 65 and older. DOGE announced it was slicing 12 percent of Social Security staff and close six of its 10 regional offices. Shutting down field offices means seniors can’t get help in person, and small staff means longer wait times. And now that a quarter of the agency’s IT workers have already quit or been fired, they can expect more frequent and longer website crashes.
“When you add hurdles, or cause a slowdown in terms of processing claims, you see losses in terms of benefits,” said Monique Morrissey, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
But then there’s the money factor. Any cuts to Social Security first hits low-income Boomers, who are the likeliest to rely on benefits to cover their whole cost of living. And anyone “comfortably middle-class in your early 60s,” has no guarantee they’ll stay that way into their 70s, writes Locke.
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Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” now in the Senate, also substantially reduces Medicaid enrollment by about 10.3 million people. And Medicaid pays for more than half of long-term care in the U.S., which 70 percent of adults who live to 65 will require.
On top of all this lies the volatile market under Trump’s tariffs, say analysts.
“[Middle-income seniors] tend to have modest investments and fixed incomes rather than equities,” said Boston College labor market expert Laura D. Quinby. “[That’s] the type of wealth that will erode over a high-inflation period.”
Read the full report at The Atlantic.
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