“Universal health the only way.” The message was powerful and clear as day, written in a bathroom stall.

Yes, as I was making my weekly rounds where I read every single bathroom stall on campus in order to find amusing or useful information (in this case both), I noticed that profound statement etched into the marble of the stalls in a first floor Fine Arts building (by the Casadeus theatre).

I found the statement to be quite timely, as recently there was a $39 billion cut to the federal budget by Mr. Bush, which was primarily oriented to Medicare and Medicaid.

Now, I’m not the political type (you know the type, red or blue tie and a monochromatic suite), but occasionally things begin to perturb me. But this budget cut, in particular, does, since much of Binghamton’s livelihood relies on the health care system.

Then again, I don’t know if I can fault the federal government for this cutback. After all, with a $2 trillion budget, $39 billion saves a substantial amount. (Just under 2 percent! Wow! Non-deficit spending here we come!)

This may come as a shock, but Binghamton relies far more on medicine and health care than it does on the University for employment.

Generally speaking, about 20 percent of the population of Binghamton is above the age of 60, the age at which many Americans begin to require more frequent and more advanced forms of health care, and I’m willing to bet that a fair few will be reliant on Medicare and Medicaid.

If you do an informal search, like through the Verizon yellow pages, you’ll find that there are seven pages for physicians. Seven pages! At about 80 per page, that’s 560 doctors in the area! With the Greater Binghamton area population around 200,000, that’s one doctor for every 357 people!

Many of these doctors frequent the many retirement or nursing homes in the area, and for every doctor there has to be a few nurses, physicians’ assistants and extended care specialists to complete the health care quad-fecta. Of course, I don’t have the exact number of those who are occupied in health care in the Greater Binghamton area, but I know it’s significant.

Mind you, I’m not saying that 60 is old (it’s the new 40). I’m just making it known that one in five people who live in Binghamton may likely have arthritis. And since there are so many in this age group, it explains why many of the area’s laws are geared toward them. Granted, given the population of Binghamton being a little less than 50,000, one in five people are students as well.

So why are there all these exceptions made for the above 60 crowd (noise ordinances, housing ordinances, explosive ordinances)? Well, they vote, simple as that.

But back to my poorly developed political argument.

I’m not sure what the outcome will be with this budget alteration, but I doubt it will help transform Binghamton into a thriving industrial hot-spot. So if there still is a health care industry in Binghamton by the time you graduate, keep this valley in mind, Decker students.

Dan Lyons is a senior English and theater major