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Federal funds aren’t broke

There are those politicians who say we must eliminate Social Security and Medicare payments in order to reduce the deficit. All I can say to that is liar, liar, pants on fire.

Both of these programs are paid for by employees and employers in the form of FICA and Medicare insurance premiums. They are not taxes and neither program is broke. Social Security has over $1 trillion in its trust fund, Medicare has something less than $1 trillion. The problem is in 1968 the Congress decided to take these trust fund dollars and replace them with treasury bonds. They used the dollars to hide the true budget deficit then, and they have continued to do that ever since.

That’s not a big problem as long as Social Security and Medicare insurance premiums exceed what they have to pay out, and only once in our history has either of these programs failed to take in more than they paid out. 2010 will be the second time. This means cashing treasury bonds to cover the checks.

Don’t vote for any candidate that advocates changing these two successful programs.

Jack E. Anderson

Nine Mile Falls



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