Political Whispers: A Look Into Today's World of Dark Politics

DON’T BLAME MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY FOR BUSH’S ILLS

By Schuyler Thorpe
Author and Political Activist

While you can blame soaring healthcare costs and the imminent retirement of baby-boomers in 2008 as the reason why both programs are in danger of collapse–if they aren’t already–the truth of the matter is in the budget itself.

Bush is funneling everything he can into the war effort–by requesting as much as $345B for both wars for both 2007 and 2008–in hopes that he can somehow stymie the out-of-control violence in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.

So what goes? Well, right now, it’s Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and education for starters.

The President claims that if nothing is done, the growth of these programs will outpace inflation rather soon, and future generations will face higher taxes, larger deficits (like $8.5T isn’t enough now?), and huge cuts in future retirement benefits in Social Security.

Once again, Bush is trying the old-fashioned fear alert where we must make careless and rash acts to slice our own future away–and our kids–by giving into more blind recklessness.

After all, Bush tried it once before with his privatization plan of Social Security–which would’ve given trillions to Wall Street and the rich; and undercut a security net enjoyed by the elderly, the poor, and disabled for decades.

However, don’t blame Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare for Bush’s financial ills.

Most of the problems faced by the entitlement programs is simple: Bush is spending himself against a very large wall.

With his precious tax cuts and low taxes to the rich–not to mention his outrageous spending on this war, George is literally putting all the entitlement programs–and our children’s future education–on the chopping block.

But does Bush care?

No. All he does is make a big stink about how little money he is getting towards his little war ventures, while the domestic side of his nonexistent agenda goes…poof!

As a result, he has nothing to shore up such programs in case something goes wrong.

And it has.

Result?

The poor, the elderly, and the middle-class are expected to pay for King George’s spending mistake for years to come.

However, the only solution to this problem is an easily implemented two-fold idea:

• Stop the war and all war profiteering.
• Shift all the current defense and tax cut spending towards shoring up our entitlement programs--along with education.

This is the only way we can solve our problems at home--seeing how Iraq is such a mess, and the rich are making a killing off this conflict.

But I doubt Bush will go along with these ideas--hence the ignorance towards his overall 'solutions'.

Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1@yahoo.com

posted by Schuyler Thorpe @ 10:44 PM