A Letter to My Senator

Senator Durbin -- on one of the talk shows today you argued (1) that the Medicare eligibility age should not be raised, and (2) that Medicare should be means tested.

As to (1), I agree with you, and not mainlly for the reason you gave (to avoid a coverage gap for retired 65 and 66 year-olds), but because it would save the government very little money. 66 year old people are not the expensive Medicare beneficiaries; various commentators have estimated the savings at such small amounts that such a move sounds just, well, stingy, a suitable first step for a Republican whose actual agenda is to destroy Medicare.

As to (2), means-testing an "entitlement" turns it into a welfare system rather than a universal right. Don't go down this road; it's just the first step, again, in a Republican design, first to denigrate the program's participants as recipients of "welfare," then to destroy the program by "ending welfare as we know it" --substitute "Medicare" for "welfare" and you have Paul Ryan's call to arms. As a defender of traditional American social values, you should not, I think, be willing to place yourself in such a position.

Thank you,

Tony Walters