Making changes to federal entitlement programs is fair game for politicians on both sides of the aisle, even on Medicare and Medicaid issues.
Entitlements will be the defining issue in next year’s election. Seniors, low income people and young adults are especially frightened of entitlement reforms on Medicare that will affect them and their families. Politicians are stalling against instituting changes before election time by using scare tactics to gain votes. Both political parties are afraid to deal with changes in Medicare before next year’s election. They cannot avoid dealing with some changes, because Medicare and Social Security use 1/3 of the federal budget dollars.
Deciding where to cut back on federal spending is a political hot potato for both parties. The major problem that politicians face is to hold their own supporters and sway enough independent and undecided voters, to be able to win next year’s elections. Each political party’s leadership is lacking the fortitude and integrity to attack the deficit problem head-on.
On the Republican side, conservative Congressman Paul Ryan Jr. is one who shows courageous leadership. He has proposed a competing budget plan to the Obama administration’s deficit reduction plan. Ryan has proposed a plan to have income tax rates reduced and taxes eliminated on dividends, interest and capital gains. He also supports eliminating the estate tax, alternative minimum tax and corporate income taxes.
His most controversial proposal is to privatize Medicare, offering seniors a potential series of vouchers options, while using Medicare savings to subsidize the balance of the deficit-reduction plan. The plan would give more benefits to lower and middle class and less to the wealthy, yet many people still oppose losing present benefits.
Contrary to statements by his political adversaries, Ryan’s plan would not change any services extended by Medicare to people 55 years or older, including present senior retirees. Medicare and Medicaid are not the same and should not be lumped together. Ryan has publicly stated he would be receptive to changes or revisions in this budget plan.
One limitation of Ryan’s proposal is that it did not slice down the military budget. It is time for us to use more of our tax dollars to support the needs of our citizens, and less to fight endless wars abroad, or support the extravagant lifestyles of the dictators we often help to keep in office, with taxpayer-supported foreign aid.
While Ryan has put some challenges on the table, President Obama’s bipartisan Committee on Reducing the Deficit had many good ideas, including tax increases and reductions in Medicare services, but it was not approved by a majority of its committee members. Many parts of the reduction plan could be combined with parts of Congressman Ryan’s budget plan, but a collaborative bi-partisan effort is needed to make it work. Obama health care involves portable health care, with private insurance placements that cover children up to 26 years old, on their parent’s health insurance policies.
While it is now law, only recently did federal appeals court judges hear arguments on the constitutionality of the Obama health care law. A federal judge in Florida this past January ruled the Obama health care law unconstitutional. We don’t know what the outcome of court fights will be.
Programs like Medicare and Medicaid are unsustainable in their present forms. Other entitlements like farm subsidies rack up billions of wasted dollars. All types of entitlement programs must be reviewed, along with pet political projects; road, bridge and construction projects; and social programs that are wasteful and costly.
Neither political party is offering satisfactory solutions for the future financial well-being of the American people. We need to reduce government spending, with reasonable and workable solutions.
In the meantime, our government needs to be diligent about prosecuting those who overcharge the government, or file false billings, for health services. And the government should be accountable to the public for cost controls, the same way private businesses are. The federal government needs to start the process of controlling spending, now.
Political cooperation is needed to solve these problems. Leaders are elected not only to argue their positions, but also to accomplish goals. Efforts must be made by both political parties to find a path that the American people can afford, that will also take care of our needy and most vulnerable citizens. We all have to give a little, to see a successful outcome.
Entitlements are a major driver of our debt. We need to agree on sustainable changes.
— Bernard Featherman is a past president of the Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce.
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