Don, Author at Granite Grok

To the Editor:

When did Americans decide it is OK to live comfortably at the expense of their children and future generations? Parents used to work multiple jobs and sacrifice for their children. Now Americans make future generations sacrifice for us.

Today’s national debt of $13.3 trillion saddles each new child with over $43,000 worth of our national debt and over $400,000 worth of promised, but un-funded future obligations. Even at today’s low interest rates, interest payments already are one of the biggest federal budget items. Projected budgets increase the debt by at least $1 trillion annually for the next ten years, increasing the tax burden on future generations and on ourselves. Some economists believe this much debt could be more disastrous than the current housing / credit crisis.

If these debts were incurred to save our country during a war, that would be one thing. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost $1-2 trillion, the rest of our $13.3 trillion debt was spent to make life easier for today’s Americans.

How did this debt accumulate? Did Americans decide to take advantage of their children and future generations? Or, did politicians take advantage of our trust and gullibility?

To the Editor:

While Bev Lapham may need to be reminded everyday about the evils of Obamacare, polls show that the majority of Americans don’t need reminders, they have consistently rejected it since last summer. The problem as Anna DeRose so aptly put it is, “Does Washington ever listen to the American people … ?”

On Sunday the leftists, the bribed, and the threatened voted to take over America’s healthcare system with legislation that threatens the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of every American. The process used to get passage was the opposite of the open, ethical, and bi-partisanship promised by President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid. Legislation and deals were made behind closed doors, advocates consistently lied about the bill’s provisions, costs, critics, and about keeping your health insurance (the CBO says 8 to 9 million Americans will lose their employer provided insurance and millions more will lose their Medicare Advantage coverage), and the only bi-partisanship on this bill was in opposition as republicans were joined by democrats who could not be threatened or bribed into ignoring the will of their constituents.

The lives and quality of life of American seniors are threatened by the $500 plus billion cuts from Medicare, in fact 33 million Seniors will be at risk of losing access to medical care according to the Medicare Chief Actuary. Seniors see Canada, Britain, California and other places where people have government insurance but cannot get a doctor or cannot get treated when needed, and they see this increasingly happen here.

Obamacare creates a bureaucracy which shields politicians when government denies medical care. If they get sick, Seniors know they may be worth more dead than alive to a government which controls the healthcare they will receive by rewarding or punishing doctors based on their conformance to political and bureaucratic guidelines as happens today in other government controlled systems. So some seniors will live in pain. Other seniors will be denied lifesaving care and will die, not only saving medical costs but ending social security payments and perhaps filling government coffers with estate taxes.

Americans know proponents have lied about the financial viability of Obamacare. They know that you can’t claim a deficit neutral system when you raise taxes and cut costs for ten years to pay for only six years of coverage. They know there won’t be big savings from reducing fraud, how much additional fraud did the President cut last year? (No extra authorization is/was needed to fight fraud.) They know that other integral costs have been taken out of the bill and will be added later. Also ignored are the increased taxpayer costs at the State level to support millions more Medicaid recipients.

Americans have had a healthcare and health insurance system which satisfies the overwhelming majority of Americans, including millions who have been covered very well for expensive procedures. Americans know that fixing this system’s relatively small problems (albeit sometimes individually devastating) are best done with small changes not a government takeover.

At President Obama’s health care summit, Americans learned that agreements could have been reached last year to fix those problems and start helping people last year.

But, President Obama and today’s leftist Congress demand a government takeover of the whole healthcare and health insurance system. They demand another costly new Federal bureaucracy to manage healthcare. They will restrict your health insurance choices to fit their objectives, not your needs. Most people will see premium increases rather than President Obama’s promised $2500 decrease. If Obamacare is so great, why do they need to hire 16,500 new IRS agents to enforce it and even threaten jail for non-compliance? Is the IRS the new kinder, gentler face of the Obama government?

Representative John Dingle just told us why it takes so long for the new heathcare “reforms” to roll out, “It takes a long time to set up the mechanisms to control 300 (million) people.” Was Obamacare sold as being a way to “control” the American people? Is that what the American people want, to be controlled by government?

Is Obamacare being done to help really poor people? No. The really poor people are…