Letters to the Editor

Something smells fishy

in Washington, D.C.

The health care debate is well under way, and the Congress of the United States has decided that we have a need for universal health care. Looking around at all the citizens, I find not one who looks exactly like another. We are all created to not be exactly alike. From different color eyes to hair (if we have any left), short, tall, heavy and thin, we are all different in many ways. How does the government think it can demand every citizen to be under one umbrella for health care?

There are about 350 million Americans, and we are, according to our government, exactly alike with one exception. Guess who would be exempt from this mandate? Right you are, the Congress who would maintain the right to pick and choose their insurance. If this plan is so great for the American people, I believe it should be the Congress that signs up first for this program.

Mr. Harry Reid has promised that he will give to Louisiana a cool $300 million to obtain the vote of Sen. Mary Landrieu. This money will come from the taxpayers of all 50 states. Smells a bit fishy to me that a senator can use taxpayer funds to bribe another senator.

This program is a disaster in the making, and when someone tells you under penalty of law that you must comply or go to jail or pay a fine, we have lost our liberty and freedom to choose.

John J. Delaney

Minden

The deck is stacked against the public

Let's not delude ourselves, we do not have a free market, what we have is a table that has been tilted, mightily, by lobbyists, who write the laws and who are not interested in competing fairly.

I'm in favor of free market, but I seriously doubt we will ever see it again in our lifetime. I have never seen things as obviously, as transparently corrupt. We've reached the cancer stage of capitalism.

Fact: Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein earns $825,900 per week. And yet, are you sitting? The CEO, Steven Helmsley, of United Health Care earns $849,333 per day.

What we have is not what our forefathers had in mind. It's the exact opposite. It's why they created a government in the first place, to protect us against the practices of England's and Europe's ruling lifestyle at the time. Our forefathers created the Bill of Rights so every human being had the chance to better themselves through freedom, independence and by capitalism with decency and integrity.

Furthermore, please end this incessant war making. We have long ago surpassed (the) demand, exacted upon our middle class, as well as wrought excessive death and destruction on unwitting civilians in foreign lands.

Lastly, under the current system of using fossil fuels, we can only sustain three billion people vs. the six billion-plus we have, so it's up to you to join the fight or die, alongside the rest of the planet.

Anneliese Puthe

Carson City