Retirees Beware

None of the blue states are exactly kind to retirees, some more so than others. Yet, it continues to amaze me when our elected officials keep using Social Security as a political football, knowing the program is headed toward insolvency as early as 2035. But never do they address Medicaid funding. Instead, we keep importing more low-skilled immigrants who will require public assistance. Between SNAP, the new catchy non-stigmatizing acronym for food stamps, home heating assistance, rent subsidy, WIC, a women, infants, and children supplemental food assistance program, and a myriad of other programs to benefit the poor, the average Medicaid recipient receives upwards of $60000 a year in benefits. And in Blue states like New York, 36% of the population is enrolled in the program. That’s 7.3 million people bellied up to the public trough. Granted, that number includes the truly needy and the disabled. But how many of those are non-disabled?  It’s not like the state social services will keep track of fraud; that system is understaffed and overwhelmed, particularly with New York State requiring social workers to have a master's degree. And is there an incentive to get off the program?  Or to have fewer children? Of course not. Instead, our government chooses to ignore the elderly, those who worked hard and paid into the system, choosing to heap more benefits on the non-productive segment of the population. In a word: Unsustainable.  And another: unethical.