Dear editor: Cut costs, not benefits

Dear editor:

I first want to acknowledge and thank Mr. Gene Forsyth for his honorable service in World War II. Secondly, I want to thank him for his insightful letter of March 23. In his letter, Mr. Forsyth laments the fact the United States participates in a war every few years. On this point, he is correct.

He goes on to tally the expenses of these wars, with particular attention given to veterans benefits. Obviously he has gone to great lengths to research this data. Without verifying his numbers, I will again concede that this is a massive number. But it begs the question of genuine waste by our government. For example: What about waste and fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid systems? What about the Social Security millions that are being paid to people who are over 100 years old? What about the Earned Income Credit and tax refunds that are being paid to people who shouldn't even be in this country?

I can assure Mr. Forsyth the moneys paid to our disabled veterans such as he, pales in comparison to the waste generated by the agencies I have listed above. Certainly we should be interested reducing the cost of our government, starting with the elimination of waste and fraud. However, there are myriad places we can start, instead of punishing our veterans. Please let us not gag on a gnat and swallow a camel.

Cal Wilcox

Hot Springs

Editorial on 03/25/2015

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