Health care debt criminal

Alden Laney asks, "We are paying for Social Security and Medicare; why not pay for health care?" (Readers' Forum, Dec. 28). But the fact is, we are emphatically not paying for Social Security and Medicare. We are only promising to pay for them, just as Bernie Madoff promised to pay off his investors. The Social Security/Medicare Trustees tell us that Social Security has a $17.5 trillion unfunded liability, and Medicare an unbelievable $89.3 trillion unfunded liability. This is money that will have to be taken out of the economy through taxes when the bills come due, starting in just a few years. To add trillions more to this debt burden through ObamaCare is criminal.

Gordon S. Jones

Draper