This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Does Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican vice presidential candidate and radical advocate of Ayn Rand's philosophy of "the virtue of selfishness" and her novel Atlas Shrugged, really think that the majority of us senior citizens only care about our own safety net (Medicare and Social Security)?
Most of us seniors also care about a safety net for our children, grandchildren and neighbors. Although Ryan has a net worth between $2.1 and $7.8 million and a house with six bathrooms, a few of us Americans cannot always go it alone and sometimes need a safety net against life's economic catastrophes: major health crisis, job loss, divorce.
So how do we solve Medicare and Social Security funding? A multitude of possible solutions have been proposed.
Concerning Medicare, single-payer Medicare-for-all would not only provide universal health care but would control costs. Another solution to the Medicare deficit would involve indexing the payroll tax to actual health care costs.
Concerning Social Security, part of a solution would involve eliminating or greatly increasing the salary cap on Social Security payroll taxes.
For real solutions, we need to return to the principle of good government: compromise between our two parties on what are the best public policies for all Americans.
Catherine Legge
Wanship