Cutting Medicare cruel to seniors

Robin Rolfe, Las Vegas

Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.

After months of falsely accusing President Barack Obama of cutting $716 billion from Medicare during the 2012 campaign, how ironic that those same critics in Congress are now demanding cuts in Medicare in the name of deficit reduction.

In poll after poll, an overwhelming majority of Americans have told Congress that cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits are unacceptable, but the message falls on deaf ears.

Yes, the national debt must be reduced, but not by cutting benefits for the elderly. Millions of them live on an average of $14,000 per year from Social Security. If cutting health care costs in Medicare is the goal, let’s start by giving Medicare the authority to negotiate prices for prescription drugs.

Even with my Social Security disability aid, I have to live in a dump. I make enough to barely survive and pay for my medication of 26 pills a day. If Congress makes changes, I will be living on the streets again and might as well give up my 19 1/2 years clean so I could just die. Is more homeless and dead people what you want?

The ball is in your court. How many of us do you want to hurt?