Truth prevails; fear machine fails
Wow! It finally happened. Despite all the Tea Party hysteria with their racial epithets, the right's lies to preserve the status quo and the rigged polls at Fox News saying Americans do not want affordable health care, 30 million more people were covered this morning when President Obama signed the health care reform bill into law. The Party of Gridlock lost once again despite their powerful fear machine and think tanks funded by the health care industry.
But what does this mean for you? It means your kids will now be covered despite any pre-existing conditions, it means your grandma can now afford her meds and you can cover yourself and your employees in the company you worked so hard to build. And let me tell you, if any party or politician votes to take these blessings away from us now, it will hasten their political demise. Who in their right mind could be against affordable health care except for the blind sheep that believe everything Fox News tells them to because they cannot think for themselves?
I propose a way to save us millions, if not trillions of dollars. Everyone who was against health care reform can choose to stand on their principles and pay full price for the medical care and meds this reform bill they didn't want now covers. Unless they're complete hypocrites, they will refuse to accept the benefits of a bill they were so vehemently against. Any takers?
Robin Christy
Carson City
We must retake America from progressives
Never in the history of our society has there ever been a time like the time we are experiencing right now. After 40 years fighting one step at a time, the far left progressives have succeeded in marching this great country one giant step toward socialism. We, as a country, have allowed them to win the little battles - removing faith from our society is just one example of the many battles we have lost.
For years, we have ignored them as far-left loons, passing them off as some fringe group which will never be able to achieve their broader goals. We slept while they continued to fight, winning a judgeship here, a congressional seat there. They used our system to out-maneuver us while we apathetically slept through it all.
We can feel sorry for ourselves today and wonder how this tragedy could have happened, or we can accept responsibility for ignoring the great threat we face and take our country back.
We are Americans. Do not apologize. Be proud, strong and great - you are an American!
The one thing that the progressive intellectuals fear more than anything is an informed electorate. Get involved. Discover how our system is actually supposed to work.
Fight back. The alarm is ringing. Wake up America.
Lee Kennedy
Stagecoach
Medicare is not the example to follow
I've noticed an ever-increasing amount of letters to the editor about "greedy" insurance companies. If anybody wants to bother checking libraries, the Internet, etc.:
1. Medicare turns down more claims than any private health insurance.
2. Medicare has arbitrary amounts that it will pay for any procedure that Medicare approves. All health insurance companies use the same basis that Medicare uses. It would be stupid of them not to.
3. Doctors, hospitals and all other medical-related entities get stiffed by Medicare all the time. Nobody could or should expect private medical insurance providers to operate differently.
4. Private health insurance companies are not in business to lose money, and have very low profit margins. On the other hand, I do believe it to be immoral for the salaries and incentives to be as high as too many are.
5. The paperwork that all medical entities are subjected to by Medicare is enormous.
We do need some reform: Limit malpractice cases by limiting the fees that the truly greedy attorneys receive, and put some real teeth in medical licensing boards so that they weed out the few lousy doctors - such as in the Las Vegas gastroenterology malpractice last year.
I got this information by being on Medicare Part B and being fortunate to have supplemental insurance provided by a former employer when I retired.
David S. Samsel
Carson City
V&T Railway project numbers don't add up
I noticed something fishy on recovery.gov. The recent stimulus funded construction project completed by the Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the Virginia and Truckee Railway is not reported correctly, and the number of jobs created went down by 40 percent.
This project is described as "V&T Railroad from Eureka Mill to west side of Frehner Pit Phase 3A." The problem is that the tracks from Frehner Pit across Highway 50 past Eastgate Siding to the end Highlands Drive were funded and contracted out before there was a stimulus package.
The only tracks funded by stimulus start at the end of Highlands Drive and continue down to Eureka Mill. These new tracks alone shouldn't qualify for transportation enhancement funds because they are not in the viewshed of a federally funded road.
More interesting is that 4.63 jobs have been lost. The project originally reported creating 10.72 jobs. Now, on recovery.gov, it says 6.09. Why were 72 percent more jobs reported than were actually created?
We spent $2,033,899 to create six temporary jobs that no longer exist. Good work. We're now up to $339,000 per job that no longer exists.
Jim Lohse
Reno