I was frankly astounded by this post; I have silently observed this Dialogue but I registered so I could rebut the views expressed in this post and by some others in this Dialogue. How can you argue that widows are a red herring? This program was created in large part to ensure that widows would not live out their lives in poverty and its success has been measured in its ability to reduce the poverty rates of elderly women. Their concerns and the concerns that their families have for them are a key aspect of reform. Representative Kolbe, a conservative Republican, understands this and so do many of the Congressman in the legislative roundtable. They are not pandering in recogonizing this as an issue; they are addressing a societal need. I also wonder how you hope to persuade others to your point of view if you cannot even acknowledge their concerns as legitimate. Don't you realize that you live in a large national SOCIETY where both are political and religous traditions argue that we should take care of one another. You cannot say reform this system but only listen to my concerns. You cannot say I must have a positive return on my payroll taxes and lets not discuss widows and orphans and the disabled. I hope that many in this Dialogue do not take such a narrow libertarian focus on this issue. Charity certainly cannot be your fallback solution. One only has to look at the hard times that the Silicon Valley United Way has fallen on to know that charity is not the answer. There in the land of cyber-millionaires and billionaires, all those computer folks could not get it together to sustain their local United Way until they were bailed out by the generosity of Bill Gates.
