Letter: Sen. Young works to defund elderly, sick

In April 2021, Sen. Todd Young announced his co-sponsorship of the bipartisan TRUST Act, intended to “create a process to rescue the endangered federal trust funds …” including funds for Social Security and Medicare. Sen. Young cites a September 2020 Congressional Budget Office finding that “four of the major trust funds will exhaust their reserves within the next 11 years.” Undoubtedly, the fixes that come out of this legislation will include benefit cuts in one way or another.

Senator Young fails to mention that the exact same CBO report that predicted bankruptcy for Social Security old age benefits and Medicare Hospital Insurance also said, with respect to Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) and Part D (prescription drug benefits): “… most of the SMI fund’s (the fund supporting Medicare Parts B and D) income is in the form of transfers from the general fund of the Treasury, which are automatically adjusted to cover the differences between the program’s spending and specified revenues … Thus, the balance in the SMI fund cannot be exhausted.” (Emphasis added.)

Mr. Young must answer the question “Why can’t Social Security and Medicare hospitalization be funded the same way as Medicare Parts B and D, by transfers from the general fund of the Treasury?” The answer cannot be that the federal government would need to raise taxes or borrow money to support this funding. As the currency issuer, the federal government does not need to collect taxes or borrow to get money. (For further information, see “The Deficit Myth” by Stephanie Kelton, or any other Modern Monetary Theory discussion.) There is no sound economic reason for continuing to fund Social Security and Medicare hospitalization solely through collection of payroll taxes and cutting benefits. It is clear that Senator Young prefers a policy choice that defunds the elderly and sick. We should all remember this when elections roll around.

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Suzanne O’Shea