Appearing on MSNBC to present his magazine’s feature piece critical of the “Baby Boomer” generation, James Bennet of The Atlantic named George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, and Bill Clinton as the three worst “baby boomers” who did the most harm to the country’s political culture and its economy. “It’d be hard not to point to George W. Bush as having done a lot of damage,” Bennet asserted. Bush, he added, “created a lot of programs that costed us a huge amount of money, without a lot of regard for what the effects are going to be on the folks that are going to have to pay for those for many years.” Bennet also blamed President Clinton and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich for failed policies. However, Bennet was quick to reference the “surpluses as far as the eye could see” at the end of the Clinton administration, as a counterweight to Clinton’s damage while in office. He bafflingly lauded President George H.W. Bush’s tax hike as “politically brave” and which helped create the prosperity of the Clinton years. The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief made these arguments on the September 14 “Morning Joe” during the 8 a.m. hour. Bennet asserted that his piece focuses on the fiscal irresponsibility of the Boomer generation. “The ultimate point it makes is… that these guys are about to pass on a legacy of debt to their own children and grandchildren that, I mean, that they basically bankrupted the country.” Bennet labeled the Baby-Boomers as “self-absorbed” and “self-loathing.” Bennet also praised the Boomers for their liberal social achievements, namely helping end the Vietnam War, and introducing environmentalism, gay rights, and feminism to the national debate. “They really changed the ethos, the political ethos, for the country in a good way, in addition to doing all the harm you were talking about,” Bennet told show co-host Joe Scarborough. “Something that needs to be said for the Boomers… is that the other generational labels really haven’t stuck,” Bennet argued. “You know, the Boomers, it should be said for them, at least have a kind of definition as a generation.”
