Govern for the Living

      If I understood Thomas Paine's counsel stated in his work "The Rights of Man", the purpose of government is to govern the living, not the dead.  It is the government's responsibility to accomodate the present generation, to make laws appropriate or necessary to meet the current challenges, and not simply stick stubbornly to a modus vivendi which may have been proper in the past and made into law by a past body of lawgivers but could no longer be sustained under present circumstances. There appears to be no dispute that there is need for a re-assessment of all taxpayer-funded programs now being administered or controlled by the government. Our leaders apparently all agree inaction can only lead to the nation's bankruptcy. Our current batch of young workers is being burdened with taxes for a social security fund that we all know would soon have no funds at all. This is a manifest injustice that deserves urgent correction. It is reported that 100,000 employees of retirement age will in fact henceforth retire each and every day and they would be expecting to receive their respective pensions. Just printing more paper money to meet these obligations is obviously not a sound solution. While the passage of tax laws is a Congressional prerogative, may not the President also be able to exercise his executive discretion and momentarily hold in abeyance enforcement versus our young workers that portion of a tax measure intended to fund a program from which they could not possibly derive any benefit? Remedial action should be done now. It is hoped that our leaders will act in a timely fashion so to avert this sword of Damocles falling on Uncle Sam's head. If I may translate a Tagalog saying to conclude:- "Of what use is grass to a dead cayuse?"