Dear Sirs: The Covington News has just entered upside down land when it comes to Medicare (June 1). When the Democrats point out, quite rightly, that the Republican plan ends Medicare as we know it, The News calls them fear mongers.

Strangely, when the Republicans use fear mongering to attack a legitimate solution to the problem, The Covington News is silent.

If facts matter, the Democrats are right. Medicare is a program that pays medical expenses for seniors. Rep. Paul Ryan has taken the name Medicare and placed it on something else entirely.

Under "Ryancare" (to avoid confusion), our government gives seniors a voucher and a pat on the back. If a senior can afford it, he or she might be able to get insurance.

However, since the vouchers are indexed to inflation and health care costs rise much faster, every year of Ryancare will find more and more seniors without enough money to buy insurance.

A good way to describe Ryancare is that it pushes the rising costs of medicine onto our senior citizens. Whatever it is, it is not Medicare. It is not a plan that pays seniors medical expenses directly.

Medicare's problems arise from the fact that medical expenses are rising faster than inflation.

Obamacare has a solution that addresses this issue. However, the Republicans have succeeded in distorting this solution to the point where it may not be salvageable.

We spend hundreds of billions every year on procedures that are known to be unnecessary or ineffective.

Obamacare contains an expert panel that would determine which services are effective and cut off payments for wasteful procedures.

When the Republicans labeled this group a "death panel" and claimed the Democrat plan would "ration care" I do not recall the News denouncing this as fear mongering.

As a 54 year old, I would be among the first to suffer from the Ryancare experiment. Whatever the Republicans are proposing, it is not Medicare as we know it, and the Democrats are quite right in pointing this out.

On the other hand, when the Democrats propose a real plan to help save Medicare, the real Medicare, the Republicans demagogue, and The Covington News is nowhere to be seen.