I read with interest several letters in last week’s Herald which discussed how to handle Medicare. It was abundantly clear that most of the writers are concerned about what will happen to their benefits.
I am also concerned as I, too, am on Medicare, and I also have supplemental insurance. And for that privilege, I pay approximately 12 percent of my retirement income.
The writers’ use of the word “vouchers,” when speaking of a GOP plan, reveals to me that those individuals have bought into the “Mediscare” tactics of the present administration. The Kool-Aid drinkers always use the catchy, scary words to get their point across. There is no mention of vouchers in the plan offered by the Republicans.
What I did not see in the letters was any mention of how the present administration has nearly destroyed our country through incompetent, partisan and misguided policies. You can be worried about Medicare if you want, but if we don’t change direction in this country, and fast, it won’t matter because the social safety net and the freedom Americans have always enjoyed will be nothing but a memory.
Everything that our country has accomplished in its brief history stems from prosperity driven by individuals working for a common goal: making things better for all by doing their fair share. The writers spoke of the wealthy paying more taxes while ignoring the fact that 49 percent pay no taxes at all, many of them actually receiving refunds for taxes they don’t even pay. Sign me up for that deal.
Complain if you want about Medicare and its future, but it’s the larger picture of how to increase our national prosperity that you should care about. It is clear the present administration has no clue about creating prosperity among the masses, and neither do they care because they already have theirs.
Henry Carnes
Poulsbo
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Ms. Russell of Hansville wrote a letter that is factually incorrect, stating that in our society the tax base rests upon the poor and middle class (“Opposed to Romney/Ryan health plan,” page A4, Aug. 24 Herald).
Currently, 51 percent of the American population pays no income tax. Forty-two million Americans are getting food stamps and 100 million get some form of government assistance.
The 1 percent of the population pays more than 60 percent of what the federal government takes in as revenue. When she says the 1 percent owe the society that made them rich a certain amount of payback, I would like to know who decides what and how much they owe? What does she owe? When April 15 rolls around, how many citizens are rushing with a smile on their face to the Post Office to pay their fair share, or when the tax form states “refund,” they respond, “Oh no, let the government have my refund. I want to pay my fair share.”
It used to be in the U.S. citizens worked hard, studied hard and were not envious of others’ success. Now they stand with their hand out to take from others.
Don’t look to the 1 percent to solve the problems of our country, look to yourself. Each election you elect the same politicians who promise, don’t deliver and yet you expect a different result. When John Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” he was not just talking about the 1 percent.
C. Penard
Hansville
