The writer of the letter “Let’s cut Congress’ expenses instead” (Feb. 23, TribLIVE) states President Biden used “his usual scare tactics: ‘Do we cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ programs?’ ” Biden has always stood for protecting these programs. Check his record, and you will see.

The source of this misinformation could be the Better Medicare Alliance, which has stated that “Medicare Advantage beneficiaries may face an average reduction of $540 per beneficiary in 2024.” What this is referring to is administration efforts to hold the health insurance industry accountable, recovering improper payments made to insurance companies and returning the money to the Medicare trust funds, thereby protecting the fiscal sustainability of Medicare and allowing the program to better serve seniors and people with disabilities.

The Department of Health and Human Services website says: “Despite industry-funded reporting indicating otherwise, the Biden-Harris administration is not proposing cuts to Medicare Advantage. In fact, the administration is proposing to increase Medicare Advantage payments this year by 1%, on top of an 8.5% increase in Medicare Advantage payments last year.”

The writer also suggested reducing Congress’ daily “living” stipend, cutting their staffs and travel budgets and giving them a less-expensive health care plan. Besides reducing our representatives’ ability to serve their constituents, this reduction would hardly affect the national budget at all. Better ways to reduce debt would be to rescind tax cuts for rich people and force them to pay their fair share of taxes, and to get rid of the enormous waste in big government programs like the Defense Department.

Margaret Andreas

Point Marion

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