Lets follow the rules and save the country
I am 81 years old, and I have been living in Chicago for the last 31 years. After 20 years of working at a company, I am now retired and have been volunteering 4 days a week for the last 8 years at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. At present, I pay approximately 60 % of my Social Security for Medicare part B, part D, and supplement health insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield for myself and my wife. This is a very serious situation for seniors in this country.
I have started some research to know why Social Security and Medicare programs are running short of money. As such from my observations and experience, I have come to following conclusions. Please go through them and publish them if you think appropriate. I have also given this information to some Senators and Congressmen.
Cash Paying Jobs - Many small business owners who have predominantly cash transactions hire employees with cash payments for the entire or part of their salary. (e.g. some employees get W-2 salary for 15-20 hours even if they work 60 to 70 hours per week. The remaining compensation is paid with cash). Approximately 12 to 15 million illegal and legal U.S. workers perform jobs with cash payments. This would result in total salary cash compensation of 200 to 250 billions dollars. This amount is not taxed to the employee or employer, hence escapes Social Security tax, Income tax, Sales tax, Medicare tax, and State tax. In addition, since their official income falls below the poverty line, they qualify for public aid programs such as welfare, Medicaid, WIC and food stamps. Thus, the government loses both ways (i.e. decreased revenue and increased expenses). Another danger of the easy availability of cash jobs is that they encourage people from other countries to come to United States illegally, creating corruption here. Some illegal aliens pay up to 50,000 dollars to their agents to come here for that very purpose. Even people who are legal immigrants and hold the aforementioned cash jobs often get many welfare-type benefits once they turn 65, which is more than what people who have worked and paid taxes for their entire lives receive.
Abuse of entitlement programs - There is considerable misuse of government welfare programs, such as Medicaid, welfare, SSI, home help, food stamps etc., which are intended to help only the truly needy. In order to curtail such abuse, the government should enforce strict checking and audit the applicants before handing them benefits. It is my observation that thousands of elderly people of 65 and 70 come from other countries only to take benefits of disability and medical benefits of social security programs of this country, and that is a very big burden for taxpayers.
Control government spending - All unnecessary spending in government offices (e.g. unnecessary staff, overtime, and unreasonable benefits) must be controlled. There should be absolutely no tolerance for corruption at any level in the government. Government employees' salary levels and benefits should be comparable to those in private sectors.
Protect the borders - The government should concentrate on halting illegal immigration, not only from Mexico, but from other countries as well.
Collection of Taxes - The government should concentrate its efforts to collect the tax revenues that are due from all employees, workers and businesses, be it income tax or sales tax. This would bring extra billions of dollars to the government coffers.
Do not punish the honest people - Whenever there is a budget short fall in a government program, the knee-jerk reaction is to raise the taxes or cut the benefits. This generally affects the honest and hard working class and punishes the seniors who have paid their share of taxes throughout their whole lives. Accurate tax collection should be the prevailing mantra rather than additional taxes.
The solutions outlined above can easily increase government revenue by 600 to 700 billion dollars which can fund the short fall in Social Security, Medicare, and Health Insurance programs without any additional taxes. Let us all resolve to protect this wonderful nation by taking a pledge to obey and follow the law of the land. The result will be a happy, peaceful, and prosperous nation, second to none.
Sharadkumar Shah
Hoffman Estates