Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Health Care Vs. Social Security

I cannot agree with or support the President’s efforts to re form Social Security especially at the cost of ignoring our nation’s Health Care Crisis. Health Care is not affordable therefore not accessible, and should be made a public good.

In addition if managed correctly Social Security should be a Self Sustainable Program. In other words it should pay for itself, and if it doesn’t that is the fault of Congress and the President and we must hold them accountable for mismanaging our money, and we must now oppose efforts to put our retirement in the hands of corporations. What logic is there in this especially with the current state of the stock market, and numerous white-collar scandals? Social Security is not a social welfare program; Americans work hard to build this safety net.

It is the duty of our nation's leader to appropriately manage this program not gambled with it. Below is a break down of Social Security surpluses (this information is provided by the THOMAS/Library of Congress):

`(A) for fiscal year 1999, $127,000,000,000;
`(B) for fiscal year 2000, $137,000,000,000;
`(C) for fiscal year 2001, $145,000,000,000;
`(D) for fiscal year 2002, $153,000,000,000;
`(E) for fiscal year 2003, $162,000,000,000;
`(F) for fiscal year 2004, $171,000,000,000;
`(G) for fiscal year 2005, $184,000,000,000;
`(H) for fiscal year 2006, $193,000,000,000;
`(I) for fiscal year 2007, $204,000,000,000;
`(J) for fiscal year 2008, $212,000,000,000; and
`(K) for fiscal year 2009, $218,000,000,000.

I urge you to contact your representatives and the President and tell them to not gamble with our retirement and to focus on making Health Care Affordable & Accessible.



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