Suddenly our news is featuring the precarious state of our
nation’s fiscal condition.
Dear Editor,
Suddenly our news is featuring the precarious state of our nation’s fiscal condition. Thank goodness, the denial of our deteriorating financial affairs is beginning to be dispelled.
Correcting our dependence on debt to fund today’s expenses is vital and will be painful, but cut and tax we must. It is only fair that we all share the pain. And this includes us seniors who collect Social Security and Medicare benefits.
When we consider our entitlements, we forget that they depend on the fiscal well being of our nation’s finances, as are all the other functions of our government. Without a solid financial structure, our government can not provide security, law and order, justice or any of the other many services we all depend on. Thus the smooth functioning of government is far more important to each of us, young and old, than our entitlements. So we all should be willing to sacrifice for the common good.
The other hard fact is that mandatory spending, mostly for Social Security and Medicare, now makes up more than half the government’s budget, while discretionary spending is little more than one third. So, to cut into the huge budget deficit in any significant way will require some reduction in our entitlements.
A gradual reduction of Social Security benefits is essential. As for Medicare, we should certainly reduce support for costly procedures that only prolong life after one reaches a certain age, say 85. A large part of Medicare costs go to keep patients alive during their last two years of life, and in so many cases this only prolongs a miserable existence. I am aware that this will cause cries of “Death Squads”. But can we afford unlimited spending just to prolong life in its final few years?
I am well on the wrong side of 80, and the prospect of our grandchildren inheriting a Nation on the brink of bankruptcy is certainly not attractive.
John Blake, Hollister
