Replying to a message of Jeff Binkley to Bob Ackley:

 JB> Medicare and Social Security have $1.47T budgeted in Obama's
 JB> latest  budget for 2011.  Together they are 50% of the
 JB> entire federal budget and  over 10% of GDP for the entire
 JB> US.  This is why these massive social  programs are
 JB> unststainable.

Yes they are - and the politicians want (effectively) to expand
Medicare to cover everybody.  The fact that providers are
abandoning the Medicare system is a dirty little secret they're
trying to keep quiet.

I remember thinking - back in the 1970s when I was still on active
duty - that the military retirement system was unsustainably expensive.
It was and it is - and it's been changed a LOT in the interim.  That free
medical and dental care isn't free any more - not even for the active duty
troops (according to an article in the current Sergeant's magazine they're
*required* to purchase Tricare Prime medical insurance coverage).

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