Where Can I Opt Out?

Many Americans do not realize it, but fully 40 percent of all federal spending goes to just three programs--Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which account for about $1.1 trillion in a $2.7 trillion budget.

The problem is that these three already-mammoth and growing programs are slated to grow even faster in coming years as 77 million baby boomers start drawing benefits from them. Left alone, spending on the three big entitlements will more than double by 2015, and then really spike in the decades after that.

Mr. Riedl points out that without cuts in these three programs, future lawmakers will face three unsettling options: raise taxes until they are 60 percent--or $11,000 per household--higher than they are today, eliminate every other program in the budget by 2045, or watch the federal debt threaten the economy in a few decades. See rest of article.

My question is: where can I opt out? I promise not to request to take advantage of any of these programs, EVER, at any point in my life. I want to save, MYSELF, for my own retirement and healthcare. I even promise to help others, as I see fit, with my money. But I want NO part of these programs, and I certainly don't want to pour thousands of my family's hard-earned dollars into them year after year. I need that money to take of our family (In fact, we've been helping to fund medicaid this whole time when we couldn't even afford to buy our own health insurance!) and to help the needy in our own sphere of influence.

You can KEEP the thousands of dollars my husband and I have already given you for these programs over the past several years--we won't ever ask for any of it back, and we won't ask to draw social security or have our meds paid for when we're old--if you JUST LET US GET OUT OF THESE LOSING PROGRAMS NOW...ONCE AND FOR ALL!