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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 17, 1993                   TAG: 9303170394
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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SOCIAL SECURITY RECIPIENTS AREN'T GREEDY

A FEB. 20 editorial ("Let's see the critics' plan") states that 20 percent of the federal budget goes to Social Security.

Am I wrong in my understanding that Social Security benefits are funded by the Social Security payroll tax and are not charged against the federal budget?

If this is true, how can payments from this fund to those receiving benefits have an effect on the deficit?

Medicare combined with Medicaid is 15 percent of the budget. How many people know that people of any age with permanent kidney failure and who have been receiving Social Security disability for at least two years are also eligible for Medicare?

Do they know that certain aliens are eligible for Medicaid?

Seniors are not the only group eligible for these benefits. Take the time to read a Social Security handbook; you may find it very enlightening.

It is time to stop portraying the senior middle-class Social Security beneficiary as selfish and greedy. It only plays generation against generation to no one's benefit. BETTY C. GARST ROANOKE

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