Entitlement programs in the crosshairs to bolster country’s debt

On Tuesday, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blamed Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for the coun­try’s $1 trillion deficit.

In President Trump’s first full fiscal year in of­fice, the U.S. budget deficit has ballooned by $779 bil­lion, or 17 percent, signal­ling U.S. spending is out of control.

So naturally, it’s the fault of programs that benefit the poor, sick and elderly — not the $82 billion increase in military spending, not the tax cuts that are expect­ed to add another $1 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, and certainly not that $70 billion wall.

If things don’t change, we’re on a path to carry a $2 trillion deficit, which adds substantially to our debt — the money needed to cover years of excessive spending — to $21 trillion and rising.

What’s the big deal? We have to pay interest on that money. Economists proj­ect U.S. interest payments alone will triple over the next decade, from $315 bil­lion to $914 billion, severe­ly reducing the available funds to, yes, provide for entitlement programs.

McCONNELL SAYS the rally, “Medicare for all,” — where the federal govern­ment would pay for every American’s health insur­ance — is anathema to be­ing fiscally conservative. But when the numbers are parsed, total healthcare spending would be less, ac­cording to the Libertarian think tank Mercatus Cen­ter, which we used because it seemed the least parti­san.

How so?

(1) Private businesses and self-employed individ­uals would be off the hook for securing health insur­ance;

(2) Because everyone would be insured, an es­timated 30 million who currently fall through the cracks would be covered, meaning fewer catastroph­ic expenses, and,

(3) With the government at the bargaining table, as with Medicare and the Vet­erans Administration, the price of prescription drugs would be cheaper.

The United States re­mains the only rich coun­try in the world not to pro­vide universal care. A full 12 percent of Americans lack health insurance, a heavy burden on health outcomes. Despite the ex­orbitant cost of health care in the United States, aver­age life expectancy here is no better than that of east­ern European, precisely because the poor are pre­cluded access, especially in states that have not ex­panded Medicaid, of which Kansas has that ignomini­ous honor.

McConnell and his ilk go apoplectic at the thought of universal health care and the benefits it would provide, saying they would break the bank.

Wherein lies the hypoc­risy.

Dare anyone mention our military budget, and how at $675 billion a year it far exceeds the combined military budgets of the next seven biggest spend­ers — China, Russia, Sau­di Arabia, India, France, United Kingdom and Ja­pan — and we’re confirmed traitors.

How is it we’ll gladly pay for more-than-necessary armaments, but can’t find the compassion to take care of our elderly or needy?