There is no doubt that there is need to combat international terrorism. But the Baby-Boom generation and aging population of the United States probably fear Alzheimer and other debilitating illnesses more than the Al-Qaeda terrorists.

While the United States is spending more-than $12-billion (spelled with a B) per month in fighting the Al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq alone, the Medicare system for the senior citizens is getting financially shaky. Without a drastic overhaul of the Medicare, the healthcare and Social-Security systems and possibly increased taxes to pay for the Medicare reforms, senior citizens—especially persons who qualify for supplementary income on account of disability—may find themselves without the basic healthcare infrastructure and support. And it is tragic for the world’s richest country to have the worst socialized healthcare for the aged and infirm among the industrialized countries.

The senior citizens further face a bleaker future because many of the private or public pension funds that they belong to actually face funding problems. There is a need for Corporate America and governmental entities to make solvent their under-funded pension plans. There are estimates that the pension funds of the three biggest American car manufacturers alone need the infusion of more-than $50-billion to make them solvent and viable on a long-term basis.

The irony of the coming crises that are the Medicare predicament and the pension-fund disaster lies in the fact that American politicians and decision makers are not addressing them. Nobody wants to discuss with the taxpayers (read, voters), especially with the senior citizens and the aging workers, what steps to take to assure the solvency of the Medicare, the healthcare system and the pension funds.

Perhaps it may be appropriate to mention again the supposed difference between a politician and a statesman. A politician just looks towards the next election. A statesman looks after the welfare even of the next generation.

It is high time for the American politicians, especially those who are now campaigning for the presidential nomination in the 2008 election, to address the said issues. The American people must not permit the present crop of politicians to continue on passing the buck to the next generation of leaders and taxpayers. Voters have to end this Great Procrastination, which in the end will just cost the taxpayers more to fix the problems that are bugging Medicare, the healthcare system and the pension fund – if they could still be fixed when the time of actual reckoning comes. The Medicare and pension-fund messes alone can dwarf the 9/11 tragedy at the World Trade Center in terms of financial, physical and emotional damages. The international community cannot afford for the United States to be mired in these looming crises. After all, it is said that when America sneezes, the world catches cold. # # #

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