Guess who pays when government borrows?
In response to Beth Hadley’s article last week, “Good and bad news about social insurance programs,” I really didn’t see much in the way of good news. While it is true that both Social Security and Medicare are financed by separate trust funds, the article points out that the Federal government has heavily borrowed against both funds — that’s the bad news.
Worse, the government has no intention to pay back what they borrowed. Instead it is “asking” tax payers to pay more to cover the difference. This is typical of the government of late, causing a short fall then “asking” others to compensate and if you protest you are accused of causing the sick and elderly to die. Don’t believe me? A few months ago a liberal front group ran an add showing a Republican rushing an elderly woman in a wheel chair over a cliff with the caption that the GOP wants slash these programs.
The government is also engaged in class warfare accusing the wealthy of “Not paying their fair share.” The reality is that the wealthy pay the majority of all taxes, so a better question is: what happened to all that money?
Like all government programs Social Security and Medicare are greatly mismanaged with massive bureaucracies, armies of union employees and inefficient systems. The answer to this is to streamline all of the above just as large corporations do. Whether you like health care companies or not, you have to admit that they are efficient, and for this reason they are profitable. Remember, these companies are exactly that, companies. They are in business to make money and there is nothing wrong with that. They are also subject to many government restrictions including not being able to provide coverage for out of state customers, a move that would expand competition and lower costs.
The only good news is that we are aware of the problem and yes, I agree with Ms. Hadley: contact your congressional representatives. Just don’t expect any action on their part; this problem has been developing for decades. Politicians give lip service to these types of problems but don’t act unless they have to, just before the situation is about to reach critical mass and explode. Then they scramble to come up with a quick-fix solution that is usually just a bandage.
As bad as they are we, have to keep up the pressure on our representatives and never let up. Politicians are like the worst type of spoiled children, you have to watch them and correct them constantly. And every so often give them a time out.
Dan de la Torre
Sonoma
