Opinion: Social Security and Medicare need reform

Two readers below take opposite approaches to solving the looming bankruptcy of Social Security and Medicare. It is hard to find common ground on how to save Social Security and Medicare.

Reader K writes, "Those who work the hardest in our country are the same people (94%) funding the Social Security Trust Fund and are still paying into the Medicare fund even when they are enrolled in Medicare and receiving Social Security. It's not welfare, it is an earned benefit. The wealthy haven't paid their fair share, which is long overdue.

"Many of those higher-income people found out just how much they needed Social Security to help them when the banking industry failed them in 2008. Social Security is not welfare, it is the safety net all workers pay into from the time they begin working, the majority (94%) now pay on their entire earnings.

"Raising the cap may not solve the problem forever but neither did increasing the percentage of FICA taxes paid (regressive taxation) in the Reagan and Clinton administrations but it kept the Social Security Trust funded for 50 years (1983-2034).

"All U.S. workers should understand the reason the Republican Party wants to privatize or end Social Security. It's the goal of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and U.S. businesses.

"It's the only retirement businesses are still required to pay for their employees, eliminating it will be a major increase to their bottom line," wrote K.

Reader W writes the other side of the argument.

"I appreciate you for addressing the federal deficit spending. Aside from the threat of a massive EMP, this (deficit) issue is the most pernicious and will destroy America if left unchecked. Your approach to transparent accounting is laudable but not a remedy to the entitle mania we have. We are going over a financial cliff because federal politicians decided decades ago — under FDR— to buy the votes of low- or non--income folks with the money they plunder from those who earn it.

"Entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid were started and expanded by Democrats, FDR and LBJ, creating the debt and deficits we now face. At least 67% of Federal spending is on those three programs and interest on our debt.

"The solution requires us to wean folks off the public teat. Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention providing for the needy. That is for private charity. However, we can continue Social Security as a measure for the masses who are too irresponsible to save for their retirement or purchase disability insurance.

"The best way to do that is to make the social security fund a personal asset, with controls and safeguards, that can be distributed on retirement or disability. Privatizing these funds was done very successfully with the city workers of Galveston Texas in 1981. But the federal politicians don't want you to know this because it would empower you to be independent of the government. Like a drug pusher, politicians want you dependent on them. It seems now that only financial Armageddon will give politicians the backbone to act appropriately. God help us," wrote W.

Readers, what do you think? Share your thoughts.

David Dunn-Rankin is CEO of D-R Media, which owns the Highlands News-Sun and the Highlands Sun, as well as newspapers in Lake, Polk and Sumter counties. He can be reached at [email protected] .