End War and Cut Defense, Not Social Services

Dear Senator Feinstein,

Received your email response to my letter regarding social safety net programs. Part of your letter is true—defense spending has risen 74% over the past 10 years and entitlements (mainly Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) by 32% while federal revenue from taxes has dropped 18% (thanks to the Bush/Obama tax cuts), our federal debt is $1.6 trillion (as opposed to a surplus before the disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) and our current fiscal path is unsustainable. The facts are true but the fallacy, the Big Lie that all you Republicrat deficit hawks keep repeating is that entitlements are the major problem. No matter how many times it’s repeated, they’re not. Social Security and Medicare are both self-sustaining programs funded by separate clearly identified payroll taxes and kept in trust funds separate from general revenue. They are not part of the budget nor are they part of the deficit. Without doing a thing to either program, Social Security would remain solvent until 2033 and Medicare until 2024. This is NOT a crisis and to repeat the Republican mantra that these programs must be “reformed” i.e., cut back or better yet, eliminated, is to be complicit in the Big Lie. Minor adjustments would make these programs solvent indefinitely. “Spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid currently account for 42% of federal outlays, and these three programs alone are projected to account for half of all federal outlays by 2021.” Once again, the problem is not the programs but the bloated and rising profit margins of the insurance, hospital and drug industries, the abandonment of a single payer health program by President Obama, and the failure of Congress to control healthcare costs including legislation specifically prohibiting Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices. As you point out, Senator, Defense outlays have risen 74% and minimal research shows national defense expenditures account for over 50% of federal outlays, yet Congress will not consider cuts to the bloated Pentagon budget. The stupid, immoral, unnecessary and unending War on Terror has already cost nearly $2 trillion, the Bush tax cuts at least that amount but all we hear out of Washington is cut entitlements and discretionary spending. This is wrong-headed, immoral and not the problem. End war and cut defense, not social services. It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the only moral thing to do.

cc: Representative Pelosi

      Senator Boxer

      President Obama