A new punching bag

For The Record

Posted

Now that Donald Trump isn’t around to use as a punching bag, the media are finding their news is not selling quite as well. They have to find someone else to beat up. For now, it appears that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is going to take a lot of blows to the head, the mid-section and who knows where else.
I find all of this quite amusing. Less than a year ago Cuomo was the fair-haired darling of the Democratic Party. Biden didn’t have his party’s nomination sewed up and many Democrats and many in the media — including the governor’s own brother — could not get enough of the “Luv Guv.” He was even being touted as presidential material. That’s right, presidential material.
As bad as Cuomo has been, we may have gotten someone worse.
From March of last year until January of this year, Cuomo was going with the flow. The national media paid little attention to the exodus of thousands of taxpaying New Yorkers from that state. The crime rate was being ignored. But then in January, New York Attorney General Tish James, a Democrat that Cuomo supported in her 2018 race for AG, issued a report accusing Cuomo of undercounting nursing home deaths by as much at 50 percent. That started the big guy’s fall from grace. But had it not been for seven women coming forward and accusing him of varying degrees of sexual misconduct, the governor would certainly not be in the trouble he’s in now.
The message the Democrats and the media are sending is this: Kill thousands of nursing home residents and — while you may be criticized — you probably will be able to keep your job; but be charged with sexual misconduct, and you’re in trouble.
As bad as that message is, it’s the message that’s not being told that really troubles me. Is it possible the media and Democrats would rather talk about Andrew Cuomo than the condition of our Social Security and Medicare programs? Or our immigration problem? Or sending federal aid to states where Democrat governors have run things into the ground?
Social Security and Medicare are in big trouble. The 2020 annual report by the trustees of these two funds states that the money coming into the retirement fund fails to cover outlays in 2034, while in only five years, Medicare will not be able to cover expenses. Ten years ago, I probably had enough confidence in the government that I would have been willing to buy into this. But after the misconduct we’ve seen in the FBI, Department of Justice, IRS and other agencies, why would we believe any government agency? I suspect the 2020 annual report may be overly optimistic.
What happens when we have a shortfall? The annual report says that after 2034, the revenues “will be sufficient to pay 76 percent of scheduled benefits.” These are retirement benefits. Are you young folks ready for this cut? If Nancy Pelosi is still around in 2034 ­— she’ll only be 93 — her answer would be to print more money. That’s already setting up Americans for a double whammy. Inflationary costs are already here, and recipients of Social Security and Medicare are looking at reduced benefits.
Medicare is facing a problem in 2026 — and that’s if you believe them. It could be coming sooner. When Medicare revenues are insufficient to pay all the bills — and we’re talking only five years out — the “total program income will be sufficient to pay 90 percent of total scheduled benefits,” according to the report. I assume Medicare recipients will be expected to cover the 10 percent shortfall. If would be nice if we were given some information on this.
The immigration problem being created by the Biden administration is being woefully underreported. Immigration is truly out of control. For the past year Joe invited everyone south of the U.S. border to come here. Now he seems a little confused that millions appear poised to take him up on his offer.
How do we pay for Joe’s mistake? How do we educate the young immigrants when we already fail miserably at educating the young residents of many of our major cities? Do school districts in California, Texas, Illinois, New York and elsewhere have the money to serve many thousands of new students? Could we be talking about hundreds of thousands of new students?
What about health care costs for the new immigrants? In light of the fact Medicare revenues will not cover all of the costs of Medicare by 2026, aren’t we going to make that problem even worse?
Do we hear about the fact the Covid bill is sending billions of dollars to Democratic states because they simply cannot function without this money? Cuomo is a classic example of a Democrat who has run so many people out of his state there are not enough people left to pay the bills. Cuomo should be impeached as much for his financial misconduct as for his sexual misconduct.