Friday, Dec. 16, 2011
December 16 Letters to the Editor
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To the Editor:
Following is an open letter to U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler:
We received your letter dated Dec. 6, 2011, an update on what you have been doing to protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security. It was great to hear directly from you on these important issues. However, it seems that there may have been a few items that were overlooked in your letter.
You wrote about Congressman Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” that you voted for on April 15, 2011. In your letter, you state that the Path does not affect anyone 55 or older. Unfortunately, that statement is simply not true. Mr. Ryan’s budget brings back the “donut hole” in the Medicare prescription drug benefit starting immediately. As you know, under current law, the donut hole is on its way to disappearing. The “Path to Prosperity” rescinds that process and, with the donut hole back, current Medicare beneficiaries and everyone else, including those over 55, will have the donut hole expenses back in their personal budgets. In your letter, you claim that future Medicare beneficiaries will have the same “kind of health care options now available to Members of Congress.” The problem with that proposition is that the Members of Congress have full-time jobs, unlike the vast majority of Medicare beneficiaries.
You state that the “Path” does not “directly propose” changes in Social Security. What does that mean? Have the Republicans given up on the idea of at least partially privatizing Social Security? If Social Security is converted into a private savings/investment plan, the elderly will have the chance to watch their Social Security benefits get hammered like the rest of us have watched our 401(k)s turn into 101(k)s.
Currently, Medicare is primarily funded by a 1.45 percent tax paid by employees and a matching 1.45 percent paid by employers. Raising those two numbers to 1.95 percent for taxpayers with incomes over $250,000 would immediately resolve the short-term Medicare funding problem.
Figuring out how to control health care costs generally is the only solution to rapidly rising health care costs in the long-term. A similar fix is available for Social Security. For 2011, once wages exceed $106,800, there is no further FICA. If the cap was eliminated, or if FICA was re-imposed only on wages in excess of $250,000 per year, Social Security would be financially sound for the entire 75-year forecasting horizon.
Medicare and Medicaid are not the problem. Exploding health care costs are the problem and neither the “Path to Prosperity” nor your letter even mention it. Social Security is not part of the deficit problem. Our deficit has exploded because of a lack of revenue. Top marginal tax rates, paid only by the wealthiest taxpayers, have been reduced from 70 percent in 1980 to 35 percent now. The “Path” proposes to reduce that rate for the wealthy to 25 percent. It does appear that you support a “Path to Prosperity.” Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans will not be permitted to walk that path.
Thomas Marshall, Freeman
To the Editor:
I can’t believe the mess over the broadband contract! Those of us who live out in the country and do not have access to high speed internet or decent phone service were so excited to hear we were finally going to be able to get high speed Internet, and now it looks like we are no closer to getting it than we were two years ago.
Come on! If you live in town, you have no idea how frustrating dealing with dial-up Internet is. Please get this project going and soon! We are way overdue for good service.
I’m trying to send this over our unbelievably slow Internet, but it will take awhile.
Laura Lee, Drexel
To the Editor:
It’s that time of year again. Should you greet people you meet with Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays? According to a Fox News poll conducted last December, 75 percent of Americans prefer Merry Christmas compared to 22 percent that prefer Happy Holidays. I am proud to say that I prefer Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays. This may seem trivial. It is anything but. Let me explain.
America is under assault by a small minority of secularists who want to radically change America as we have known it. They want to heavily tax the affluent in order to set up a massive central government.
Beyond that, they want to create a society where no judgments are made about personal behavior. They want a society that has no restrictions on abortion, no laws against drug use, and no or weak laws against sexual predators.
I could go on but the idea that I want to convey is that these people want a nation with no borders, a government that replaces faith and the family unit, (by government replacing faith I mean the idea that government grants rights instead of rights being God given and by replacing the family unit I mean the idea that the government should take care of children instead of the parents) and people who exercise no personal responsibility and do what they feel like no matter how the consequences may hurt another people. They would also gut the military because they do not believe evil exists and that any attacks on America are justified because America oppresses other countries around the world.
If the secularists get their way, the results would be just what I described. In certain places, this stuff does go on but it is not widespread and we can fight against its growth and hopefully one day defeat it completely.
What is important to know is the most difficult obstacle that secularists face is religion, primarily Christianity. If your goal is to reduce the influence of Christianity, how would you do it? You would attack Christmas.
We have seen this for years now. Why do you think some people throw a fit over a nativity scene on public property? It is the same reason why they want us to say Happy Holidays or asks schools to change Christmas Break to Winter Break or even demand that a Christmas Tree be called a Holiday Tree.
It is all an attempt to make Christmas more secular and less religious. They would love little kids to think of Christmas only as a day where they get more toys. They would never want the Christmas season to be a time when kids learn about Jesus and why his birth is important.
I doubt many of you consider yourselves culture warriors, but you can be. All you have to do is wish people you meet a Merry Christmas. The scenario I have described is pretty bleak, but I have good news. We are winning!
People are starting to reject the assault on Christmas. An example of this is what Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is doing. He is actually calling the Governor’s Christmas Tree what it is, a Christmas Tree. It has been called a Holiday Tree for the last 25 years.
Thank you Governor.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Jay Bennett, Harrisonville
