To the editor:

Pres. Trump has promised that the recently passed tax cut bill would be a Christmas present for all. So what will we get to unwrap this holiday season? A weaker healthcare system for starters. Let me use Medicare to illustrate how.

Medicare will be increasingly defunded. The tax bill will immediately cause $25 billion in funding cuts to Medicare. These cuts will lead to reduced medical services for cancer and other ill patients. This happened in 2013, the last time there were Medicare cuts. Those were temporary; these ones are permanent. People will die because of it.

Going forward, Medicare faces an even shakier future. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has already started to call for even more cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security because of the increasing national deficit. This is the same deficit that Speaker Ryan worked to explode by $1.5 trillion in this tax bill. He wants to cut your Medicare and Social Security benefits (that you pay into!) so that the wealthiest Americans can get even richer.

I, for one, am thankful that Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) voted against giving me and you this “Christmas present.” It’s one I could have certainly done without.

William E. Smith III, Bloomington

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