January 31, 2003 God, how I love the local paper.  They're writing about Medicare, one of the most fraud-ridden programs outside of the defunct Soviet Union.  Here is the conclusion from the mental giants at the Mercury News:     For all its faults, the Medicare system provides a fair and reliable system of care with low overhead and high consumer satisfaction.  Building on that base, Congress should be able to come up with a prescription drug benefit that fairly and intelligently provides essential drug coverage for all senior citizens. Now I ask any sane human being: can you candidly describe Congress as "intelligent"?  What, exactly, are these journalists smoking?  It must be some awfully good stuff! My response:
		Your editorial about Medicare defies description.  This 38-year-old monstrosity is a testament to the inherent failures of central planning: rationing, shortages, high costs, poor performance.  And throw in an unfunded liability which is in the tens of trillions of dollars, and waste that totals tens of billions every year.  Future generations will be paying the bill for decades, possibly generations.  When liberals talk about doing things "for the children," this abomination is surely at the top of the list. The fraud alone would make an Enron executive blush with envy.  But while Enron is bankrupt and its board deservedly scorned, the Medicare scam rolls on without reason, sanity, or constitutional authority.   No Medicare administrators are being hauled away in handcuffs before the media.  No congressional committees will be formed to excoriate the guilty.  Taxpayers are expected to continue paying through the nose.  The mentality is easy to characterize: no matter how abysmal government is at providing medical care or anything else for that matter, just shut up and open your wallet. To describe such a glaring failure as fair, reliable, low cost, or satisfactory to consumers requires a special kind of delusion.  I suggest that the Mercury News editorial board get its collective head out of the clouds and join the real world.  Medicare cannot be fixed.  It needs to be scrapped, and the sooner the better.