Ted Kennedy died last night and the mainstream media can't do enough to tell us how great a Senator Kennedy was during this 47 years in the Senate.  Chris Matthews just stated on his show that Ted Kennedy has "a towering legacy".

There is no question that Ted Kennedy had a very difficult life after the deaths of his three older brothers, particularly the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy.  This is an incredible burden that no one individual should have to bare in their lifetime.

However,  Ted Kennedy was a very flawed person.  He was fully responsible for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.  He acted irresponsibly immediately after the car accident that resulted in Ms. Kopechne's drowning.  When a person's life was on the line and Ted Kennedy needed to act honorably, Ted Kennedy failed to deliver.  During the 40 years since this event it is what I most remember about Ted Kennedy.

In the years that followed Ted Kenndy was one of the most liberal Senators of our time.  He contributed significantly to the massive build up of our national debt and to the future unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare.

Many in the media give Kennedy credit for working hard to cross the aisle and work with Republicans,  What I remember about Kennedy were his strident liberal views that were completely out of touch with the majority of Americans.

I am sure there are many folks that will want to praise the life of Ted Kennedy.  I have no praise for Senator Kennedy.  From my perspective he never made the hard choices necessary for our government to act responsibly from a financial perspective.  I wish he had retired from the Senate years ago and lived his final years with his family in a quiet retirement.  Unfortunately he kept his expressing his very liberal views as long as he possibly could

I know that a death of a family member or friend is a difficult for everyone.  I hope the Kennedy family can resume its normal life within a reasonable period of time and retain their positive memories of the Senator.

I hope some of our major media outlets will review Senator Kennedy's life work without any bias.

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Who does the Obama administration and the Democratic party think they are fooling with their party line regarding health care cost?  The cost of Medicare, a government single payer program, is out of control.  See extracts from the most recent annual report from the trustees below.  The Democrats must fix the Medicare mess before they change any other part of our health care system.

A SUMMARY OF THE 2009 ANNUAL REPORTS
Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustee

A MESSAGE TO THE PUBLIC:

Each year the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds report on the current and projected financial status of the two programs. This message summarizes our 2009 Annual Reports.

Medicare

As we reported last year, Medicare's financial difficulties come sooner—and are much more severe—than those confronting Social Security. While both programs face demographic challenges, rapidly growing health care costs also affect Medicare. Underlying health care costs per enrollee are projected to rise faster than the earnings per worker on which payroll taxes and Social Security benefits are based. As a result, while Medicare's annual costs were 3.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008, or about three quarters of Social Security's, they are projected to surpass Social Security expenditures in 2028 and reach 11.4 percent of GDP in 2083.

Conclusion

The financial difficulties facing Social Security and Medicare pose serious challenges. For Social Security, the reform options are relatively well understood but the choices are difficult. Medicare is a bigger challenge. Its cost growth can be contained without sacrificing quality of care only if health care cost growth more generally is contained. But despite the difficulties—indeed, because of the difficulties—it is essential that action be taken soon, particularly to control health care costs.

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I have just added a new article on the national health care debate to my web site.  Just click on the heading in my Top 10 list.

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