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Jewish World Review July 7, 1999 /23 Tamuz 5759
Cal Thomas
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
We might play that game with President Clinton. He claims that he has found another $1 trillion, after discovering a previous trillion dollars, following a miscalculation of a much lower surplus that has yet to materialize and is only a projection based on a supposition that current growth will continue for 15 years. How do we know this president isn't lying to us the way he has about everything from foreign policy and domestic "affairs'' to even his golf score? How can we be certain that the flimflam man isn't sticking it to us again in order to boost his approval numbers, improve his vice president's election chances and establish his "legacy'' before leaving office? He might say anything to fool us into thinking he is a great president. The lie is that Medicare needs more money. The truth is it needs comprehensive fixing. Red tape is only one of Medicare's problems. A new Heritage Foundation analysis notes that the Health Care Financing Administration frequently denies reimbursements for care it deems "medically unnecessary'' but does not provide doctors and patients with sufficient information to determine what services fit that description. There are more than 111,000 pages of rules and regulations governing Medicare patients. The answer to the problems surrounding Medicare is a system of choices, allowing families to pick the plans that provide the benefits they need, not a government bureaucracy that imposes a one-size-fits-all program. The president also claims that by spending the "surplus'' -- which is not yet in the bank -- on Social Security, the problems inherent in the current system will be mended. The truth is that, like so many other proposed "fixes,'' this one only delays the day of reckoning when the Baby Boomers are retired and the ratio of workers to retirees declines to two to one and the system can afford to pay out only about 71 cents for every dollar paid into it. In addition to the amount diverted from existing Social Security taxes, workers could save up to an additional $2,000 a year in their accounts. Contributions from lower-income workers would be matched by the government. If the worker died before retirement, the full amount of the account would go into his or her estate.
This is serious Social Security and Medicare reform that will work, but the truth is Democrats
want to use the issue against Republicans rather than solve the problems. That way they can
continue their slander of Republicans as uncaring about the elderly and the poor. But true
compassion means fixing something that is broken so that it will benefit the people it was
designed to
06/29/99: A family to value
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