The prescription drug welfare program is one of the most infuriating capitulations of the Republican party in my lifetime, yet it is just accepted without much comment by so many.

When Social Security was begun by FDR, there was a key decision to be made: Should it be an enforced savings program, or a welfare (transfer) program? Enforced savings would have taken a long time for anyone to see any real benefits; FDR would have been out of office before it made a substantial difference to any retiree. In order to buy votes, you need to start mailing checks a lot sooner than that, so they decided to start the Ponzi scheme we have today, vulnerable to changing demographics and political pressures. Ditto for Medicare.

At least retirees today receiving their Social Security welfare checks can pretend that they are not really welfare checks, as they contributed to someone else’s retirement when they were young and working. Can someone tell me how much today’s retirees contributed to the prescription drug benefits of anyone else during their working years? My computation shows zero, zilch, nada. Why could no Republican find the courage to point this out? Were they afraid that “the greatest generation” would say, “Who cares? We want our welfare checks!”

We could have had the guts to explain this in the simplest terms, then started an enforced Medical IRA savings plan that would permit spending on any medical expenses, including prescription drugs. But then, we would not be buying any votes today, would we? In which case, what is the difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to the key issue of using tax dollars to buy votes?

Restore the Constitution. Smash the trough. The federal government is corrupted in almost every department by its enormous power. Put Richard Eptein on the Supreme Court, because he sees the progressive income tax as an unconstitutional taking.