Letter: Save Medicare, Social Security; reject Hultgren, Kinzinger

Letters to the Editor

Letter: Save Medicare, Social Security; reject Hultgren, Kinzinger

Oct. 12, 2018

To the Editor:

U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren does not support Social Security and Medicare. His voting recordindicates the exact opposite. Retired people and people with disabilities whom rely upon these programs should not vote to re-elect Hultgren. 

Hultgren has voted in favor of various iterations of now Speaker Paul Ryan’s authored bills that would transform Medicare from a health plan to a voucher/ subsidy plan.

Under a voucher plan, beneficiaries would receive a fixed amount and be left to shop the profit motivated private insurance industry for their health insurance. It is a plan the Congressional Budget Office has previously estimated would more than double the out-of-pocket health care cost for Medicare beneficiaries.

This plan has passed the Republican majority House of Representatives more than once but has not gone further. Yet. 

So, the Republican majority sought another method to weaken both Social Security and Medicare. Their answer was the recent Balanced Budget Amendment.

Barry Mayworm elegantly described this Balanced Budget Amendment as a backdoor method to cut program funding in his recent letter to the editor (“Kinzinger voted to cut Social Security,” page 14, Oct. 4). In review, the Balanced Budget Amendment would limit government spending to that of revenues received.

Therein lies the backdoor. On the heels of the massive tax cuts the Republican Congress bestowed to corporations and the wealthy, the expected revenues received will be substantially lower than the prior normal, so much so large deficits are forecast.

Lower revenues would in turn force a reduction in Social Security and Medicare spending if the amendment were to be enacted. Mayworm cited that U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger supported the amendment. Hultgren also supported the amendment.

The Balanced Budget Amendment failed because it did not receive the necessary two-thirds vote. Fortunately. 

It should be apparent that the Republican consortium would rather make cuts in Social Security and Medicare rather than to preserve the well-being of its beneficiaries. It is unconscionable. Retired persons and people with disabilities should not vote for Kinzinger or Hultgren.  

Gary Moberg

Sycamore

Above is from:  https://www.daily-chronicle.com/2018/10/13/letter-save-medicare-social-security-reject-hultgren-kinzinger/a3jw9zz/