Opinion

Obama has screwed the next generation

Evan Feinberg President, Generation Opportunity
Font Size:

Young people overwhelmingly supported President Obama in both his elections in the hope that he might make their lives better.

But over at BuzzFeed, Ben Smith has written an insightful piece, “Obama prepares to screw his base,” explaining how young people will bear a disproportionate share of the costs of Obamacare.

My major quibble with Smith’s piece? Obama isn’t preparing to screw young people. He and other politicians have been doing it for years.

Obamacare is an obvious example. A central tenet of the plan and the purpose of the individual mandate is to shift costs from older, sicker people to younger, healthier people. Unsurprisingly, health care costs are projected to nearly triple under Obamacare for Americans under the age of 27.

It’s also no surprise that AARP, which Smith called the “implacable lobby for retired people,” has been “energetically making the case that young people should pay up.”

Ezra Klein responded to Smith’s piece with a post: “Don’t worry, kids. Obamacare is a good deal.” Sounds a lot like Ezra is trying to sell some swampland in Florida. And heck, young people have been sold so much swampland under Obama that we’re drowning in the mud.

Generation Opportunity’s latest Millennial Jobs Report found that 13.1 percent of 18-29 year olds are unemployed while another 1.7 million have given up looking for work. That means roughly one out of six young people did not get up and go to work today.

Consider the plight of a young woman named Melissa, who shared her story on one of our Facebook pages, The Constitution by Generation Opportunity: “I’m still stuck in the same dead end job I had in college. I graduated almost 2 years ago and can’t find a single full time job! … I work at a putt putt and entertain kids every weekend for a little over minimum wage. I have to live with my folks, too. They are really loving about it. But, I can’t seem to find an opportunity to go out on my own.”

According to a 2012 study by the Pew Research Group, 49 percent of 18-29 year olds have taken a job they didn’t want just to pay the bills and 24 percent say they have taken an unpaid job just to gain work experience. Only 30 percent consider their current job to be a career.

In his recent inaugural address, President Obama argued, “We reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.” But the choice has already been made, with young people left holding the bag.

And Washington’s idea of investment? Asking us to bankroll a government-run health care system that we will barely use. It’s no surprise that our national debt is now $16.5 trillion, financed more and more on the backs of young Americans. The average American’s share of the national debt is now over $50,000. If that number were weighted by age, an 18-year-old’s share would approach $1 million.

The increased costs to young people under Obamacare in particular are real and devastating. The American Action Forum estimates that young, healthy people will be forced to endure insurance premium increases of 169 percent to provide older, sicker Americans with a 22 percent decrease in their premiums.

There is no doubt that we will shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden of Obamacare. But if we don’t start demanding a seat at the table, young people will be crushed under the burden of a future without opportunity.

Evan Feinberg is the president of Generation Opportunity, a national, non-partisan youth advocacy organization.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel