OUR DELEGATION needs to realize that the government can’t continue to provide retirement and medical benefits for people who are now living in retirement for years longer than was anticipated when those benefit programs were first initiated (“State’s House members firm against benefit cuts,” Page A1, Nov. 30).

This doesn’t mean you have to change benefits for those currently retired, or about to do so. However, there is no reason someone under 50, for example, should not have to work until they are in their 70s before benefits begin. Dealing with those issues is what leadership means. Trying to give everyone everything is not leadership.