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By hKKINCH SLAUGHTER
Rappahannock News Contributing Writer
Once again the Congress and the President are engaged in the yearly battle over the budget.
And once again, we have an opportunity to look beyond the usual quick fixes and one-time accounting gimmicks of past years. Congress and the President shouldinstead enact the long-term budget reforrHS that are necessary if we are to put this country on a path toward a balanced budget.
Crucial to this move toward fiscal sanity is proper treatment of the various Federal Trust Funds, including Medicare.
While the status of Social Security has sparked a running debate in the halls of Congress and on editorial pages across the country, we have thus far ignored the poor financial condition and misuse of the Medicare Trust Funds. That is why I recently introduced H.R. 4907, the Medicare Trust Fund Integrity Act of 1990.
Like Social Security and other Trust Funds, the Medicare Trust Funds are currently being used to disguise the true size of the Federal budget deficit. In other words, while the various Trust Fund reserves are by law dedicated to specific purposes, such as providing Medicare
93.3%