While reading reports that resources in the Social Security trust fund will be depleted by 2041 and Medicare funds wiped out by 2019, people should know that trustee and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is a George W. Bush appointee. The trust funds are managed by a committee with a majority of Republican appointees. Republicans have been trying to kill both programs.

The administration has mismanaged this country’s resources. It has spent hundreds of millions of dollars bailing out buddies in banking and on Wall Street. It has spent more than $1 trillion on mismanaged, unnecessary wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That money amounts to welfare for the military, military contractors and Bush’s corporate buddies.

People with median incomes have never received a tax cut from Republicans. For example, Reagan’s tax cut of 1982 was the largest tax increase in the history of the country. This “tax cut” doubled the FICA tax withheld from hard-working Americans’ paychecks. If the FICA tax were to be cut in half and all earned income subjected to the tax, including executive bonuses and stock opinions, Social Security would be solvent for the next 100 years.

That would be a real tax cut for Americans with median incomes.

After 30 years of Republican mismanagement, the nation’s retirement system and the health care system are in big trouble. The entire economy is headed for another great depression because of Republican “tax cuts” and out-of-control spending.

It is time for a change.

Judson R. Duncan, Monmouth