There’s only so much we can pay

There’s only so much we can pay

Thank you, nurse Rosie Brinsek, for the opinions regarding taking responsibility for your own health in the Oct. 26 letter, “We make our own choices.” My family has never had health insurance, and, frankly, the new plan scares me mightily.

For years, we’ve eaten “the uninsured’s diet” of grimly healthy food. And all four of us, including my 92-year-old mother, exercise daily. Fun? No. Time-consuming? Incredibly. But, knock wood, we’re all old and healthy.

I don’t begrudge giving an extra one or two thousand dollars in taxes to pay medical for youthful or middle-aged victims of unforeseen illness and injury, or for hospice care. I highly object to a yearly $13,000 forced health insurance purchase to pay for diabetes brought on by obesity, hip replacements for nonagenarians obviously mere months from death, the children of women who birth numerous children, or for grossly crippling genetic illnesses that could easily have been prenatally detected and aborted.

There’s only so much money and so many doctors to share around.

Ellen Putman

Vancouver

Use skepticism when dealing with BPA

Regarding Bonneville Power Administration power line route proposals, reported Oct. 29, “Neighbors abuzz over power lines,” I also live near existing lines. I have found the BPA to be bad neighbors at best. I find some of their personnel to be arrogant, condescending, and inconsistent when managing the space below their power lines.

Personnel changes at governmental agencies precluded our neighborhood from retaining existing and very old trees because the BPA had amnesia about planting some of those trees years earlier. They exercised their right-of-way with a scorched-Earth policy directly through a city park and open space. They became irritated when citizens became involved to protest the proposed tree removal. They did not inform residents near the open spaces or the park of their plans, choosing only to notify those who owned land where they would be felling trees.

After much citizen involvement, the BPA is slated to replace some of the trees they removed. However, I sincerely doubt they have learned from their recent dealings in our neighborhoods. So I, with the voice of experience, encourage all landowners and affected citizens to approach the BPA with skepticism, get deeply involved, and get everything in writing.

Julie Coop

Vancouver

Intervene in sentencing laws

Michaela Mosteller’s Oct. 20 letter, “Revise law to exclude lesser offenses,” on our three-strikes law points out that we are too quick to throw away life. This is a shame of our communities. The low-level offenses that are considered strikes call for intervention, but not life in prison. Washington law states that “the punishment for a crime should be equal to the seriousness of the crime and commensurate with punishments meted out for similar crimes.” How can we justify life imprisonment for low-level offenses?

Our legislators should look at our sentencing laws, investigate the wisdom and the effectiveness of them and act to reform them. Otherwise, we will continue to have the costly increase in prison populations and the need for more prisons. This will contribute to the continued growth of budget deficits and the ever-present unappreciated increases in taxes.

Sandra Gadberry

Vancouver

Crisis could have been averted

Television can be a powerful tool. Several nights ago, the program “Frontline” on PBS focused on the roots of the financial crisis. It was fascinating and extremely provocative.

As a taxpaying American, I am horrified by what I heard. Frontline asserted that Brooksley Born, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission not only foresaw, but warned Congress of the impending financial disaster in the late 1990s. It could have been prevented. Think of all the people you know who were/are affected by this economy. According to Born, “they (Congress) were totally opposed” to helping avert the crisis.

Frontline’s program titled, “The Warning,” ends with Born predicting that America’s economy will face significant financial downturns and disasters until we remedy the regulatory gaps in the market.

I urge all Americans to read this Frontline investigation online at pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning and demand an immediate inquiry into such blatant negligence.

These elected officials are meant to represent us, the people, not their own interests.

Renee Kinkley

Vancouver

Administration oversteps

While President Obama and his minions have not come directly out and declared their socialist agenda, slivers of that agenda continue to dig their way into our day-to-day lives and provide us with direct insight into the real “change” they want us to believe in.

The latest example is the so-called pay czar’s decision to use Executive Branch power to regulate the pay of private companies. I want to be very clear on this issue. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about executives of companies like Bank of America and AIG receiving millions in bonuses and salaries while at the same time continuing to receive taxpayer dollars under the guise of a bail-out. However, it is exponentially more sickening to me that the Obama administration is attempting to regulate the pay of private companies.

This decision constitutes nothing short of a policy aimed at ripping the heart out of our Constitution. The heart of that sacred document is liberty and the foundation of that liberty is a clear and necessary separation of government from private industry. This quiet, behind-closed-doors socialist take-over is frightening and simply cannot be allowed to continue.

Frank Decker

Vancouver

Sowell’s credibility fades

After reading Thomas Sowell’s Oct. 27 column “Obama changes America for the worse,” any credibility he had left as a thoughtful journalist is gone.

He continues to spew out all the conspiracy theorist’s garbage and the “deathers” propaganda as if it had merit. His examples of czars and evil creepies existed also in the Bush administration where the Bill of Rights were routinely violated, most often by the head “creepy” Dick Cheney.

I laughed out loud when he praised Fox News for their insightful (or more fittingly, inciteful) reporting. This is the network that seems to pride itself in promoting conspiracy theories and searching about for any negative tidbit they can find to denigrate the current administration. Their slogan to be “fair and balanced” is a joke.

Arden Hagen

Vancouver