Dear Editor: It has come to my attention that Social Security and Medicare is in the red. Social Security can still make full payments until 2034 and Medicare’s reserve are to run out by 2026.

This I find quite troubling. I’m 69 years old and my wife is 65 and is also collecting Social Security benefits. I’m working part-time now for Northeast Plumbing for 38 years to supplement what I get from Social Security. It would be a hardship and a struggle to have benefits reduced.

In the last three years, I have had four operations due to an aggressive cancer and have depended on Medicare benefits as well as my wife who had a recent operation.

To add more insult to injury, it has been reported the government has used past Social Security surpluses to fund other spending and the government owes the program $3 trillion.

As a senior citizen, I call for Congress to find solutions to keep these programs going. Senior citizens across this great nation have worked all their lives to make this country what it is today and demand to be given our rightful due. Not to do this is an insult to all senior citizens and that would be a national disgrace.

FREDERICK R. BEDELL JR.

Glen Oaks Village