<-- Return to Opinion Page
<-- Return to Main Page

Real crisis is Medicare funding

The hunt is on for weapons of mass Social Security destruction. With any luck, the administration can reassemble the highly skilled team of information gatherers and analysts that has been so successful in the past.

George Tenet, a previous medal winner in this area, would be a good choice to lead the administration's search for the evidence that will convince us that nothing short of war on the Social Security system will prevent future suffering.

Once he and his highly skilled team have concocted the evidence supporting the administration's preconceived ideological position, perhaps Colin Powell can present it to the American people. I hope he uses charts and pictures like last time. Those were really convincing. Pundits can be paid to promote the agenda; Fox News and Social Security Veterans for Truth can help, too.

What other methods of mass deception will be used to convince us the system is in serious trouble? Even using overly pessimistic growth rates for the U.S. economy, the system is not in any danger in the foreseeable future, and the changes the administration proposes will not help the average person.

There is, however, an actual problem to solve. The Osama bin Laden of unfunded liabilities is Medicare. This problem is much larger than the most dismal projections for Social Security, and much more immediate. An administration that truly cared about helping the average person would work on real problems, not problems invented to support an ideological agenda.

MARK THOMA

Eugene

[Submitted to the Register Guard on 1/16/2005, published 1/26/2005]