Social Security, Medicare plans vital

To the editor:

Republican Congressional Candidate John Archer told a Burlington area service club recently there must be ?shared sacrifice? in addressing the nation?s spending habits. (As reported in the Hawk Eye, City and Region, Sept. 14, 2012, p. 3A).

Archer says ?Everybody is going to have to feel the pain,? and it?s going to take people getting over the ?entitlement mentality.?

Apparently, those he expects to feel the pain are seniors and the disabled who receive Social Security and Medicare. These are by far our biggest ?entitlements.?

Folks over 65 who have worked a lifetime and the disabled see Social Security and Medicare as ?earned benefits? ? not merely entitlements.

Social Security and Medicare keep millions of seniors from poverty and bankruptcy and help the disabled endure hardship.

Archer provided no mention of shared sacrifice and pain on the part of millionaires and billionaires who have reaped massive tax advantage while middle class income declines.

Archer needs to get over his Ayn Rand ?Every man for himself, sink or swim mentality.? Social Security and Medicare are good for America and will be just fine when Archer agrees to contribute on all of his wages as the rest of us do.

Congressman Dave Loebsack, Democrat, knows firsthand of the value of Social Security and Medicare in the lives of seniors and the disabled. He has been perfectly clear that these vital benefits will not go on the chopping block on his watch.

? Dave Helman, Salem