The other day I saw a chart illustrating the growth of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the federal budget. The chart and article were produced by www.bankruptingamerica.org and it showed these three items growing from 16 percent of the Federal budget in 1967 to a whopping 41 percent of the budget in 2011.  I believe that there are two reasons for this.
The first reason, which is not discussed in the article, is the abortion of over 55 million babies since 1967. To quote the article, “The facts speak for themselves: 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every day and health-care costs continue to rise.” However, one individual calculated that, if those babies had not been aborted, our population would be standing at somewhere between 430 and 500 million instead of 313,200,000. This spread depends on how many children each of these aborted babies had.
What would an additional 110+ million worth of purchasing power do to the economy and the resultant taxes paid in? It would go a long way towards reducing the share that these three benefits have in the budget. Just look at the baby products alone that would be sold! Look at the houses that would be sold.  There would be about 25 percent more revenue in the federal coffers. This would not only help Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, but also make our federal debt situation look much better.
The second reason for this situation is the senseless overspending of the federal government, a spendthrift position that has been encouraged by three years without a federal budget. (Incidentally, this is against the U.S. Constitution, but who reads that any more.) Because of this situation, there have been more benefit expenditures added to the Medicaid part of the package. That is the portion which has grown the most, a whopping 800 percent! As the article states, Medicare and Medicaid costs have been driven up by the general cost of health care. This is true. However, it is also true that benefits added to the Medicaid by Congress has more than helped with this growth.
Can we fix this problem? Not without great sacrifice, and I am not sure that the general populace is willing to make that sacrifice. This next election will give us our answer. If the big spenders are re-elected, then we are doomed. If not, there may be some hope.
The first part of the problem took 40 years to create. It cannot be fixed overnight. And again, are we willing to make the necessary sacrifice? Are we willing to return to God individually and as a nation? Are we willing to return to God’s plan for the family, i.e. one man married to one woman for life while raising more than two children?  
Someone recently said to me, “It’s too expensive to raise more than two kids.” It is? In my own family, my five siblings and I have raised 31 children among us. We afforded it very nicely, but the raising of those children came first, before adult toys and personal comforts.
In Malachi 2:13-16, God said that He wanted couples to stay together so that they could raise a godly heritage for Him. If we decide to return to Him with all of our hearts and change our ways to follow Him, He promised to heal our land. (2 Chronicles 7:14). The ball is in our court, folks!

Frank F. Clark is the author of the column “Frankly Speaking.” Contact him through the Great Bend Tribune, e-mail@gbtribune.com.