Dear Editor:
Why isn't an obvious step along the road to federal financial sanity the return of Medicaid and all health care responsibility to the states? No block grants, no federal oversight, no more "help" from the feds. We have far to many "one size fits all" plans from the federal government. Those running the federal government have doubled our national debt during the Obama presidency. How much more proof do we need that the majority of them are either self-serving or fiscally incompetent? If your children and grandchildren were legally responsible for debt you incur would you think yourself a responsible parent if you ran up debt, debt your children would have to pay after your death, to buy things that made you feel good, but were not actually necessities?
Let the citizens of each state decide how best to serve the health care needs of their neighbors. Rather than fund health care, health insurance, etc. with more borrowed federal money let states fund necessary programs with increased taxes as required. Why not allow Missouri residents to purchase coverage under the same plan that covers state workers? Premiums could be subsidized based on means testing.
We should all be ashamed of ourselves for piling more debt on the shoulders of all future generations. Experience proves that those in the federal government are totally incapable of fiscal restraint. The dreaded, "the sky will fall" sequestration "cuts" started taking effect Jan. 1, 2013. Federal FY2013 spending was $3.5 trillion, FY2016 spending was $3.9 trillion, a $400 billion spending increase! With the exception of the bailout years of FY2009-2013 ($800 billion of that spending was designated for infrastructure improvements), the FY2016 deficit was the largest ever. It was a 20 percent higher deficit than even the FY2008 deficit, when we had 190,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was higher even though the feds wrung $423 billion more out of our economy in 2016 than it did in 2008, the highest amount ever collected. (All dollar figures adjusted for inflation.)
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