When politics triumphs over common sense, chaos reigns.

Accountability and transparency are absolute necessities for government activity, so the American public must be able to change government activity at any time during the election cycle. See proposed Accountability Amendment to our Constitution (3/19/2017 post).  More than ever, the American people need an Accountability Amendment to our Constitution to control government and fix the current political insanity.  At a minimum, every political office except President and Vice President of the United States should require that person to sign a legal accountability contract agreeing to a constituent recall election at any time.

For years our politicians have been stealing money from the Social Security Trust Fund into which hard working Americans have been forced to deposit a part of their income. The value of this observer’s account at age 62 based on accumulated deposits at 5% compound interest would have been worth more than $300,000 if the monies had been in an independent fund.

In the 1980s when a man older than 65 immigrated to the United States, he started receiving Social Security checks. Why?  He earned nothing here.  Was this an entitlement that some politician used to buy votes?  The same logic applies for young people who claim Social Security disability.  Instead of choosing another way to earn a living, many claim that they are disabled.  Why?  In what way are they disabled?  Is this a scam to get free money?  The lawyers are making money or they would not take the case.  Who pays for that?  Is this just another entitlement benefit the young have been promised?

For healthcare, Congress has mandated that everyone who shows up at a hospital must be treated regardless of the ability to pay, so they get treated.

Now the Democratic politicians and maybe some dumb Republicans want to provide Medicare for everyone. They never discuss how they will pay for this program that has been estimated to cost trillions of dollars.  Remember that every federal, state or local government program increases the size of the bureaucracy that administers that program and increases the cost of government.  The Democrats also do not discuss how the government decides whether healthcare is approved or denied.  Using a government healthcare administration like that formerly used at the Veterans Administration created the long waits to receive healthcare that killed many veterans seeking help.  Long waits and denied healthcare with potentially fatal consequences are part of every socialized medicine healthcare program.  In the past, government supplied healthcare has led to abuse and corrupt practices instead of good healthcare.

Until World War II, to have or not have healthcare insurance was an individual’s responsibility. Healthcare is still an individual responsibility and not a right that the insane politicians are peddling.  Healthcare costs will go down when there is more consumer input into the cost and less input from government and the insurance companies.  Bureaucrats justify their existence by issuing more regulations whether needed or not.  More government regulations have always increased the cost of health insurance.   When the consumer insists on more input into their healthcare costs and demand accountability for the charges made by the insurance companies, healthcare providers, hospitals and drug companies, the cost of healthcare will begin to decrease.

If an economic system gives an individual the opportunity to earn millions of dollars per year, why is all or some of that income exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes? If Social Security and Medicare vanish into bankruptcy, guess whose taxes will really be raised to provide the money if there is government intervention to care for elderly persons who can no longer help themselves?  In the past before the federal government got involved, when older people could no longer help themselves, family and church groups would try to help.  Help from family or a caring church group has to be better than that received from a bureaucrat who may be indifferent to providing good healthcare and is just doing a job.  Big government is not the answer.

Since so many people now depend on Social Security and Medicare, we must save these programs. How do we increase the money being collected to help Social Security and Medicare?

Currently many of the big money people do not collect a salary. Instead they laugh at ordinary Americans by selling their stock and paying a lower capital gains tax with no Social Security or Medicare deductions.  Interest and dividend income are also exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes.  To help Social Security and Medicare stay solvent, why not have these taxes be collected on ALL PERSONAL INCOME with no maximum income limit?  Why discriminate against the lower income American wage earner and favor the high dollar investment earners?  We know why.  The answer is politics and political campaign financing.  Another way to finance elections is proposed in my book.[1]

Without the American workers helping them, most rich people would never have been able to get rich. The time has come for those who have been so richly rewarded by our economic system to financially help the system which enabled them to become rich by paying Social Security and Medicare taxes on ALL THEIR PERSONAL INCOME just like the rest of the American people. Stop the discrimination!!!  If the politicians don’t want to do this, remove them from office.  Politicians who only worry about themselves are another reason we need an Accountability Amendment to our Constitution.

[1] Ernest Kanak Jr., The Way I See it, Outskirts Press (2014), P  72,73