Seniors: Urge Your Elected Representatives to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

AARP programs across the nation are encouraging members to contact their representatives in Congress and urge them to reject any legislation that could hurt Medicare and Social Security as they vote on the current budget. Messages have been sent to AARP members by both regular and electronic mail.

It is true that Social Security is the single greatest expenditure in the federal budget. Expenditures in 2010 were $712.5 billion. It is currently estimated that Social Security keeps roughly 40 percent of all Americans age 65 or older out of poverty.

The 2011 annual report by the program's Board of Trustees noted that in 2010, 54 million people received Social Security benefits. Of those receiving benefits, 44 million received retirement benefits and 10 million disability. Assets of the fund in 2010 were $2.6 trillion, an amount expected to be adequate to cover the next 10 years of benefits.

Defense spending is not as high as Social Security, but the U.S. Defense Budget in 2010 was $663.8 billion. The defense budget supports the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, as of September 2009, the U.S. possessed 5,113 nuclear warheads and the defense budget supports that project too.

I am certainly not an expert on the subject, but intuitively it would seem that we could destroy civilization and our planet with a mere 2,000 nuclear warheads, and therein lies an opportunity to decrease federal spending. We should not decrease support for the troops currently in Iraq and Afghanistan; in fact, I think we should provide them with more support while they are deployed and much more support after they return. However, perhaps we should focus on our citizens and soldiers rather than on nuclear proliferation.

There is also significant waste in Medicare which could be curbed. In some cases Medicare pays three times the normal cost of drugs. There is fraud and abuse in Medicare. But that does not mean we should cut the benefits to our neighbors in Marple Newtown who have worked for our country and paid into Social Security expecting some benefits.

Readers, this in my opinion, and please feel free to comment below whether you agree or disagree.

If you decide to contact your elected representatives to inform them that it is not appropriate to reduce Medicare or Social Security benefits, see the information below.

 To get in touch with Sen. Robert Casey Jr. (D):

- Call his Washington office at 202-224-6324

- Call his local office at 215-405-9660

 To contact Sen. Pat Toomey (R):

- Call his Washington office at 202-224-4254

- Call his local office at 215-241-1090

To find your Representative enter your zip code at this link:

 http://www.house.gov

Stay well until the next post,

Bob Gasparro