Dan Schnieders,
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
I've got one of those names that often gets misspelled, and if you don't correct people right away, the one misspelling just sort of gets worse as others see it. It self-perpetuates.
That's exactly what's happening with this baloney about Republicans changing anything when it comes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Say anything on these subjects, and you are guaranteed to be mischaracterized; Biden's State of the Union is a great example. These three programs are the quintessential Queen Mother of all Political Third Rails, and along with the Affordable Care Act and Children's Health Insurance Program comprise half our nation's budget so it's worth characterizing them correctly.
Depending on your source all these programs are headed toward imminent insolvency, which ironically means our politicians and the public should be talking about them more, not less. Rather than look for ways to meet America's needs through innovation, we are forced into a "throw more money at it" position; a situation which makes our already unprecedented national debt even more perilous.
I'm the first to admit that I have no deep expertise in these types of humongous financial strategies. But one thing is quite evident: it seems we're at this place because we have a government that can't resist the opportunity to get involved with things they simply aren't very good at in the spirit of, "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."
It seems all those dollars most of us paid toward these programs throughout our working life didn't "grow" as predicted and with longer life expectancies, decreasing worker-to-retiree ratios, increased medical costs and costs of living, along with administrative inefficiencies and fraud, our dollars have turned into mere coins. Put another way, there are more people that want to ride in the wagon than are working to pull it.
When you see the faces of Democrats in the media, which one do you think is serious enough to take up this unpopular gauntlet and "fix this?" It seems they are good at opening our borders to illegal immigrants, chunking money nonstop at Ukraine, killing off cheaper energy, pander voting blocs with discussions of reparations and loan forgiveness, confusing our kids about which bathroom to use, but not so good at solving problems they make.