Poor response
TO THE EDITOR: An open letter to Mark Barie, Chairman of Upstate New York Tea Party:
Compare the entitlements that different groups receive. Welfare was reformed 15 years ago, and is now quite limited. Unemployment benefits are temporary. Social Security pays for itself but could use small adjustments. Medicare is out of control, but who will suffer from reform? Billions in fraud-control savings won't hurt patients. Newt Gingrich wrote recently in the NY Times that patients receive massive unnecessary treatment. Maybe its defensive medicine, maybe the system follows incentives to bill for services rather than care. But these additional, unnecessary treatments don't benefit patients, they benefit doctors, hospitals, insurance and drug companies who bill for the services. From this perspective, Medicare is corporate welfare piggybacking on a legitimate public-health program. And the Medicare Drug Program specifically prohibits the government from negotiating better prices. And we have no choice but to buy health coverage that includes advertising, executive salaries and shareholder dividends. I'd like more choice.
The defense budget (necessary but bloated) significantly supports entrenched corporate interests. The mortgage interest deduction helps those with the biggest houses most.
The economic development handouts you receive come from our tax revenues. It's insane for states to compete for jobs by offering more and more tax breaks. That's a race to the bottom. Jobs come from demand, which comes from a stable middle class, the biggest demographic of consumers in the country. Frankly, I have a hard time supporting your use of these programs while you decry efforts to revive the overall economy.
The last set of tax cuts added $2 trillion to our debt and jobs are now fewer. The unnecessary war in Iraq added another trillion. Energy and agricultural subsidies, mostly enjoyed by major corporations, keep us addicted to oil and corn syrup.
The Tea Party's nativism, rhetoric and finger pointing has only obscured an honest budget discussion. We'd all like lower taxes, but name calling and declarations of war aren't the answer.
Dan Albert
Peru
Raise taxes?
TO THE EDITOR: I cannot believe the hypocrisy of Rep. Bill Owens. He votes yes on almost every bill that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars, then votes no on raising the debt ceiling.
How can he vote to spend without knowing where the money will come from? Oh wait, I bet he wants to raise our taxes!
Calvin Coolidge
Jay
Opinion
March 9, 2010
Letters to the Editor: March 10, 2010
- Editorial
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Editorial: No raise for state legislators
This is not the year for state lawmakers to look for a raise.
- Editorial: A pair of aces among the Cards
- Editorial: Nurses, aides: a breed apart
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Editorial: No raise for state legislators
- Cheers and Jeers
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Cheers and Jeers: Feb. 13, 2012
CHEERS to Peru High School teacher Kathleen Roach and Cardinal Points.
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Cheers and Jeers: Feb. 13, 2012
- Letters to the Editor
- Speakout
- In My Opinion
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In My Opinion: E'town water, sewer essential
Elizabethtown has a history of economic ups and downs, Town Supervisor Margaret Bartley writes.
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In My Opinion: E'town water, sewer essential
