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To the editor:
Reading that "10 years since bankruptcy, Detroit fires again but city workers and retirees feel burned" (The Chief, July 21) is no surprise. When plans are made to balance budgets, workers' health care and pensions are seldom a priority.
Detroit Firefighter Mike Berent, 52, has risen to the rank of lieutenant. But the pension he was looking forward to has been reduced by $1,000 a month, which is why he's working a second job. When he retires at 60, he will still be five years away from being covered by Medicare.
Now if we had Medicare-for-all and if Social Security was expanded to cover all retirees and had increased benefits, this would not be a problem. But increasing taxes on the wealthy is not something Republicans will consider and is also opposed by many Democrats.
Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have introduced a bill that would increase Social Security and Medicare by eliminating the $160,200 Social Security tax cap. Currently, income above that is not subject to the 6.2 percent Social Security tax. The senators' proposal would still exempt income above $160,200 up to $250,000, but tax all income above it. Not surprisingly, neither the media or other Democrats have said much about this.
Now expanding Social Security and Medicare benefits and coverage, as well as many other essential programs, would require increasing income taxes on the wealthy. Cutting the bloated defense budget, which is largely corporate welfare and more than twice the Russian and Chinese defense budgets combined, would also be helpful.
Propagandists love to claim that capitalism "works." But it never has for most people. But what they deride as socialism has worked for most people in Scandinavia. What has worked for most people in our own country has been derided as socialism.
Richard Warren
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Your above opinion has some merit but lacks the personal responsibility to organize and spend money more wisely and all of us are at fault on this when we don’t invest our limited resources properly. Our elected officials on either side have failed us and play the good cop bad cop roll but all lead to the same play book. When illegals are slap in front page as to be using our resources without even putting the blood / sweat as most of us have is all created by GOVT and Big Corp. They attempt to
Brain wash us and not the laws they created. We never voted on this and most of us wouldn’t lock our selves into a contract forever.No votes to stop / limit resources or the welcome mat into NYC. We have to eat it and they all stay pretty silent on tjn
Saturday, August 5, 2023 Report this