This is Viewpoints for Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017

Huffing and puffing

I have often seen negligent parents and others puffing away on a tobacco cigarette in the presence of small children in a vehicle. It is not uncommon to see a mother strap her infant in the backseat of an automobile, light up her choice of Carcinogenic smoke and drive away with windows closed. I have long held, and written in letters used on this page, that such treatment amounts to child abuse and any person engaging in such activity should spend at least one day and night in our county jail. If a grown up wants to smoke until his face turns blue and the elasticity in his/her lungs fail to the point a portable oxygen tank is used, that’s OK with me, but children should not be abused in such manner.

Rep. Sandra Scott, D-Rex has come to the aid of such children by introducing House Bill 18 in Georgia that would ban tobacco smoking in any vehicle transporting a child under the age of 18. Several other states have passed similar legislation, and it is time we did so here.

Natatorium benefits

Houston County has long prided itself as a family-oriented, sports-minded, community. However, its public recreation facilities are, per County Commission Chairman Tommy Stalnaker, “sorely lacking.” No significant ones — save a football stadium — have been built in decades. Talk about creating a sports complex has yielded nothing tangible in years.

Through the upcoming SPLOST, its citizens have an opportunity to help address this shortcoming. This includes the creation of an aquatics complex (natatorium). The county’s public pools were built long before the high schools had swim teams, and thus are inadequate to host meets. But a natatorium has uses far beyond high school swimming. Swim lessons, lifesaving courses, club swimming, water aerobics, diving, scuba practice, recreational swimming and special events can all be hosted at this new complex.

Unlike with libraries — but as with the equestrian complex in Perry (both taxpayer-funded), participants in these activities will pay to use the facility and thus defray its operating costs. A single youth swim meet brings hundreds of families to town for a weekend to the benefit of local businesses and the tax base.

The natatorium is no more being constructed to create future Olympians than Freedom Field was built to develop future NFL players — although either would certainly be great. The complex will involve less than 5 percent of the SPLOST funds. Recreational facilities like this are what government, industry and individuals look for when deciding to come and/or stay in Middle Georgia.

It’s long past time for “Georgia’s Most Progressive County” to take the plunge. Vote yes on the SPLOST.

Over priced opinion

A couple of days back, one of your readers, I believe it was Bob Norcott, offered his usual rant on the”Liberal Media.” He closed with “My two cents worth.” I am glad he put a value on his contribution but at two-cents, it seems vastly over-priced.

As for Mike Ganas’ criticism of Frank Gadbois, I suspect that doing his due diligence is not his strong suit. Facts are important, Mike.

Social Security and Medicare

John Haugabrook’s letter about the costs of Social Security and Medicare (Telegraph, January 2,) is simplistic and, at its best, misleading. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (http://kff.org/medicare/fact-sheet/medicare-spending-and-financing-fact-sheet/) Social Security and Medicare combined make up 38 percent of the federal budget. However, their impact is much less than that on the national deficit/debt. The two programs must be examined separately, rather than Haugabrook’s approach of lumping them together, to evaluate their budgetary impact.

Social Security, enacted in 1935, is based on a payroll tax of 6.2 percent each on employee and employer up to $118,500 in earnings per year. The revenue raised goes into a trust fund from which benefits are paid. So far, the trust fund has paid all benefits. Thus Social Security has added exactly zero dollars to the national deficit/debt.

There is concern that the trust fund will be depleted by 2035 (the date changes a bit as demographics change). Social Security will at that point either have to have additional revenue or pay only 75 percent of benefits under the current formula. Paying the 75 percent would still add nothing to the deficit/debt because the incoming revenue from the existing tax will provide that payment.

The society should, however, live up to the commitment it made to the nation’s elderly. There are commonsense fixes to maintain the social contract to help with retirement. To my mind, the fairest and most just is to raise or eliminate the cap on earnings taxed. Of course, the well-to-do will pay more, but the well-to-do have been central to efforts to hold down wages, which reduces the revenue from the payroll tax and makes it harder for the working class to save for retirement. Surely they can pay a little more to help the workers on whom their wealth is based with retirement, especially since they will get Social Security and regain at least part of their payment.

Medicare is more complicated. It too is based on a dedicated tax: 1.45 percent each on employee and employer to pay for Part A (Hospitalization). Part B (Medical) and Part D (Drugs) require premiums and respectively draw 73 percent and 74 percent of their costs from the general fund. Overall, 41 percent of Medicare costs come from the general fund, which affects the deficit/debt. This means that $245.7 billion of the total federal outlay of $3.5 trillion is due to Medicare. (All figures from http://kff.org/medicare/fact-sheet/medicare-spending-and-financing-fact-sheet/) That’s a little over 7 percent. Since Americans have refused to make provisions for health care, surely, as citizens of the richest country on the planet, ensuring that the infirmities of old age are succored is little to ask.

For a short and straight forward account of Medicare I suggest Trudy Lieberman, “Don’t Touch My Medicare,” Harpers’s Magazine, 333 (Nov. 2016): 45-52. Those wanting more elaborate detail of the entire issue of health care, including Medicare, should see Paul Starr, “Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform,” Revised Edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013).

This story was originally published January 7, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017."