Unsustainable Growth in Wrong Place

Dear editor:

It has been reported that in his latest budget request, President Bush expressed alarm about what he called “the unsustainable growth of federal entitlement programs,” and he proposes savings in Medicare and Medicaid that far surpasses what he or any other president has sought. The president contends that he can make the rules changes of paying less to medical providers and hospitals without any action by Congress.

Amazing that Mr. Bush can recognize this “unsustainable growth” but cannot see the same in his request for an additional $245,000,000,000 for HIS war in Iraq. And it keeps growing. Shouldn’t he be able to see that the growth of Medicare and Medicaid helps to care for and save American lives while the growth of his money request for HIS war brings nothing but death and dismemberment to American troops? His priorities are way out of whack. But then again, Medicare and Medicaid don’t benefit his buddies in the oil and defense industries as HIS war does.