Letters to the Editor for Sunday, August 30, 2009
Published: August 30, 2009
Updated: September 2, 2009
Writer: There is no ‘right’ to health care
In an Aug. 25 letter to the editor (“Health Care a Basic Right”), Walter R. Smith cites the well-known words of the Declaration of Independence as defining the right to health care. I’m not sure where in phrase “... the right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness …” he finds our right to health care.
Click to sendThe right to life seems clear. The primary role of our government is to provide for our national security and public safety, that is to say, to protect life.
Another role is to secure our liberty, rather clearly and specifically set forth in the Bill of Rights.
If he is applying the “pursuit of happiness” phrase, I believe his argument neglects to recognize that this declaration does not guarantee happiness, but rather the pursuit of it. That is a transitive verb phrase. To achieve happiness, we must do something: act, work, earn. We must pursue.
By contrast, the First Amendment guarantees our right to free speech. We need not do anything to hold this right, except ensure Congress does not abridge it. It is given, granted, guaranteed. It is a right.
Do we also guarantee everyone has food? How much; what kind? Do we guarantee everyone has shelter and clothing? Certainly all of these are essential to health. How do we guarantee people are protected from the consequences of engaging in destructive behaviors, such as drugs, violence, or forgoing a free education provided by the taxpayers? Those who engage in such acts may believe they are “pursuing happiness” for themselves.
All nations that have attempted to provide health care to all people have come up against the reality that in doing so, limits must be imposed. Even China, that great construct of equality, is struggling with an overwhelmed health care system in which the Chinese people do pay a significant amount out-of-pocket for health care or they do without it.
Life is not fair. Government cannot make it fair.
NEIL W. BOHNERT
Lynchburg
Worker bashing
Ben Davenport’s Aug. 23 Op-Ed in The News & Advance bashing the Employee Free Choice Act shows that corporate CEOs will say anything to maintain their grip on power.
He blasts the legislation’s arbitration provision, claiming binding arbitration is a radical idea. Yet Big Business regularly uses arbitration when it works in their favor, such as resolving consumer disputes, personal injury claims or home construction contracts. They seem to only oppose such measures when bargaining contracts with workers, hypocrisy of the highest proportion.
The reason why union membership has declined isn’t because workers don’t want unions. It lies in the fact that corporations have the upper hand in preventing workers from organizing unions. Thirty-four percent of employers actually fire workers for their support of a union. Even when workers overcome hurdles like these illegal firings and other forms of intimidation, 52 percent of workers unions have no contract one year after a successful union election.
The Employee Free Choice Act would resolve these delays by giving both workers and companies the right to request an independent arbitrator if they can’t settle a contract.
This commonsense measure will help restore balance to our obsolete labor laws by giving workers a fair path to choose to form a union, toughening penalties for employers who violate the law and preventing companies from using endless delays and stall tactics to deny workers a collective bargaining agreement.
It’s time lawmakers in Washington pass this vital legislation so we can create an economy that is fair for all of Virginia’s workers.
KIMBERLY FREEMAN
Acting Executive Director, American Rights at Work
Washington, D.C.
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Reader Reactions
Gabriel, go get your Government flu shot. Our President wants you get the Government shot. It’s your patriotic duty.
In a week you will stop shaving.
In two weeks it will really start to egg you that women are not forced to cover themselves in public.
In three weeks you will get an urge to buy a small rug and start praying toward Mecca.
Should you be foolish enough to refuse, well, there is always the death panels. Be sure to ask for the one with the mercury. That’s what keeps it fresh and pure. You do like pure, don’t you?
Gee gordie, perhaps you have been hiding under a rock again. Tne bill is HR3200. The same bill your messiah has been touting, defending, and trying to push on the American public.
Gee Gordie, I guess you have been hiding under a rock again. While the bill is HR3200, it’s the one being touted by the white house and your messianic fool.
Let me see now. Democrats passed an SCHIP program to take care of children after they are born.
Gabby stands in the way for getting health care for their parents. Without decent health care the parents of those children will probably die due to lack of Health care.
What is your solution Gabby, for taking care of all the orphan children when their parents die off or divorce because of large medical bills?
Here is Gabby again worried for life in the womb but does not give a darn for life after leaving the womb.
Yes Gabby you are one fine piece of work? Or is there a better word?
Come on some body help me out. What does one call such a great person as Gabby?
Doesn’t he deserve some type of Nobel Prize?
Gabby could you help me out?
I keep searching for a Health Care Bill that was put out by the White House. All I can find are 5 bills and soon to be 6 when Congress gets back in session.
Every bill I check out is a congressional bill. I cannot find one by the White House.
Could you give me a link to this fairy tale of distortion you are spreading?
Your not playing Judge, Jury and Exectioner again, Are You?
You know, if the best you can do is cut & paste nonsense like this and your infamous —“Their cost are half, because the USA has 300 Million people, not 50 Million.“—not forgetting—“No State gets back more than it pays.“—
Well, it is really taking advantage of the kindness of the N&A. You are not posting a comment. You are cutting & pasting and making up untruths and math riddles. That is disrespectful of all the readers and posters, not to mention lazy.
Now I am going to leave the room. I expect you to keep your eyes on your own paper and do your own work. Do you hear me?
WHY DO DEMOCRATS WANT TO CONTINUE TO KILL INNICENT CHILDREN?
President Obama told liberal clergy that those who claim his health care plan will provide taxpayer funding for abortions are “bearing false witness.“ But it’s the president who is not being truthful with the American people.
The Capps Amendment, passed by Democrats in the Energy and Commerce Committee at the end of July, specifically says that the “public health insurance option shall provide coverage for (abortion) services,“ and directs the “Commissioner” to “assure” that every American will have access “to at least one ... plan that provides coverage of (abortion) services.“
California Democrat Zoe Lofgren admitted in a town hall meeting this month that “abortion will be covered by one or more of the health care plans available to Americans.“
Even the Associated Press wrote that ObamaCare “would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions.“
Democrats in the House and Senate have voted down every attempt to make sure abortion funding is kept out of the health care proposal.
That reform is needed in health care is not a question, mostly because Americans are being raped by the insurance companies. But Obamacare in its present form is not the answer, because it progressively would cut (yes, cut) the care for baby boomers in the future, if not through the reductions and costs of private options then through the mandatory benefit cuts the government would have to make in Social Security and Obamacare (formerly Medicare). Think about it. If government can’t handle the costs of the elderly now in retirement via its Medicare and Social Security programs, do we really expect they will offer the baby boomers better (and more costly) benefits in the future?
According to a CBO report called “Baby Boomers’ Retirement Prospects”: “Present trends are unlikely to persist indefinitely, however, because total payments to retirees are expected to grow much faster under current law than either the total incomes of workers who pay Social Security and Medicare taxes or the revenues earmarked for those programs. That widening gap will place increasing stress on both programs. Narrowing the gap could involve slowing the future growth of benefits.“
Notice the words “under current law” and “slowing the future growth of benefits”? That is key. The only way around this future financial dilemma (according to this administration, at least) is to change “current law” and to “slow” or lower the benefits for baby boomers. That new law (or basic legislation upon which such changes can be amended) is Obamacare.
Look closely at the political prescription from the CBO’s same boomer report: “The extent to which baby boomers are providing for their own retirement—and (SET ITAL) have time to react to policy changes (END ITAL) (emphasis added)—is thus an important consideration in evaluating proposals to reform the Social Security and Medicare programs.“ The only way the boomers will “have time to react to policy changes” is if they are enacted before they go into retirement! (Are you catching another reason for the White House’s rush to pass this legislation?!)
This is dirty secret No. 4 in Obamacare that our government isn’t telling you: Obamacare ultimately is designed to force retiring baby boomers into a much cheaper version of socialized medicine than Medicare, which already is being positioned to be cut to the tune of $500 billion. Obamacare is not merely about reforming health care to aid 47 million Americans who are uninsured. It is about reforming “current law” to ax 72 million retiring Americans, whom the government can’t afford to support over the next two decades.
The messiah and his minions are sliding further down the slippery slope.
Zogby: Obama Approval Plummets to 42 Percent
President Barack Obama’s job approval rating is down to 42%, with a decline in approval from Democrats the leading factor.
The latest Zogby Interactive poll of 4,518 likely voters conducted from August 28-31 found 48% disapprove and 42% approve of the job Obama is doing. The poll found 75% of Democrats approve of Obama’s performance, a drop of 13 points among Democrats from an interactive poll done July 21-24 of this year.
The true gabriel writes,“ but there is a core black community that chooses not to help themselves and wants everything given to them.“
No whites, no asians,no latino,no am.indian, no body but blacks.
Right gabriel? We know where you come from, no need to explain.
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