Posted by
William D. Dannenmaier on Monday, January 18, 2010 9:03:21 AM
On the Fox News Roundtable, Sunday, January 17, Juan Williams closed one discussion with a few sentences which both offended me and contained errors. As best as I can recall he said, Americans will come to love the government health plan because they love entitlement programs, mentioning Social Security and Medicare.
In March, 1946, following my 16th birthday and on my Mother’s orders, I walked the streets of downtown St. Louis looking for a Saturday job. At 10:00 in the morning Famous Barr employed me as a stock boy in men’s clothing. My job was to hang up suits that had been tossed on top of display cases by salesmen: matching coats, vests and pants. It kept me busy. There were eighteen salesmen. My pay for the day was $3.50, of which I received $3.15. The other 35 cents went to Social Security. I began paying into Social Security then and continued throughout my life. Supposedly, it went into a special fund from which I would draw following retirement.
I suspect that Mr. Williams has a savings account in a bank somewhere. I’ll bet that if or when he went to draw some money out of that account, he would not call it an “entitlement.” If he was told the money had all been used up by the bank for other reasons, he would call them thieves. We call the people who used up the Social Security money “Congressmen.” The fact that they took money from an account that was promised to exist, but never did, for other purposes and are now taxing people to pay what generations of Congresses have stolen, does not mean I am getting something for free when I draw Social Security.
The same is true of Medicare. I have paid for Medicare since the program was started just as I have paid for other insurances over the years, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The fact that I used my automobile insurance, following an automobile accident and used Blue Cross on occasion does not make them “entitlements.” The fact that I now use Medicare (in addition to Blue Cross) on occasion does not make it an “entitlement.” It is something I have paid for over the years and continue to pay for. In fact, as I noted in a letter to my Senator, the cost of Medicare to me has gone up considerably faster than the cost of living of my Social Security.
No, Mr. Williams, I don’t consider myself receiving an “entitlement” when I receive my Social Security or my doctor receives a payment from Medicare. I think I, and my doctor, are receiving something I paid, and continue to pay, for.
The last part of your sentence was unusually stupid if I understood it correctly. I believe you said, or at the very least implied, that government health insurance would be free. To whom? Are the doctors and the hospitals going to work for free? If not, who pays: Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Cuba? I doubt any of these, although it appears that our Democratic Congress and President Obama are making it free to those who belong to the “right” businesses, unions, such as automotive and service workers or have the “right” senators.