Editor, This letter is for all those U.S. senators, congressmen and people in the White House who want to do away with Social Security and Medicare. When the U.S. government shuts down these two programs, it will hurt the elderly and the economy. It will put more people in the unemployment lines because Social Security is the only income many people ages 65 and older have, and older people will have to find employment to make a living, forcing the nation’s jobless rate up.
The people on Social Security who lose it will not be able to help the economy because they won’t have money to buy anything. Some will end up on the streets, homeless and digging for food out of trash cans and Dumpsters.
As for Medicare, cutting it would be a threat to national security and would open the door for bioterrorists to operate in this country.
Cutting Social Security and Medicare will not help the economy, and senior citizens are not the ones who got this country into an economic mess by approving bailouts for the rich.
I would not have bailed out these companies owned by rich people who turned around after the bailouts and gave their CEOs big raises.
And calling President Obama a Socialist is not right because a Socialist would not have given bailouts. A Socialist would have taken away the assets and profits of these failing corporations and their owners and put the money into the U.S. Treasury. If the corporation was worth saving, the government and the taxpayers could have run the show and kept the profits by putting them into the treasury, which would have brought down taxes that people pay.
The government should get rid of all the high-paid CEOs. They should only retain people who are willing to be paid minimum wage, which should be raised to 25 percent above the poverty rate or cost of living in this country.
I feel that most of the economic problems here in the United States are because we elect uneducated people who don’t have master’s degree in economics or master’s degrees in political science to run our government. We need to make this a requirement before anyone can run for the presidency, senate or congress. That way, we won’t have an economic mess like we do now.
As for medical care for all U.S. citizens, it can be done by the U.S. and state governments. If other countries can do it, why can’t our government?
Some countries use their military to help give free medical care to citizens. A suggestion I have for doing this is to draft all the people working in the medical field into the U.S. military before they can practice medicine in the civilian market. Have these health-care professionals serve six years in the military, caring for our nation’s citizens. They may not be as greedy after serving in the military.
After all, greed is what is hurting Medicare because of the high prices private health-care providers charge for 15 minutes of care. They run patients in and out like cattle and don’t listen to patients who need to talk about their problems.
I think I save the government money by checking my own blood pressure twice a day, following a daily diet plan and keeping my own medical records up to date. I do this so I can show my doctor what my blood pressure has been or what type of medical problems I have had since my last visit with him. But he seems to have no time for this review of my health.
Let me wrap this up by saying I am not a rich person. I don’t own a home. I rent a run-down trailer. I don’t own a car. And the government is giving our money to the rich and cutting off poor people’s incomes. I am a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran who gave 21 years of service to the U.S. Army. Is this how the government is supposed to treat us?

— Robert J. Wetmore
Hinesville