Unhappy with federal plans

Dear Editor,

We were sold a fire hose of stimulus, but got a garden hose! According to recovery.gov, $152.4 billion of the $800 billion emergency stimulus bill had been made “available” as of June 19.

It also identified that only $52.9 billion of this was “spent,” out of which Social Security sent $13 billion to seniors by issuing “one-time” payments. So much for the historically (hysterically) swift action required in February to stem the hemorrhage of job loss! Sorry, no refunds but perhaps we can get a credit for…

Cap and trade. Ron Kind and friends passed this in June. Apparently some politicians are clairvoyant. Who knew? They would have to be in order to vote for a bill that they hadn’t even read, but they had a good excuse; a large portion was written around 3 a.m. the day of the vote. Who says nothing good ever happens after midnight?

Next up: health care. It’s a crisis; therefore, it must be passed this year! When we look at the fine print, we see something else. No uninsured American will see any benefit until 2013 at the earliest. However, anyone seeking a new private insurance carrier during the year the bill is signed (presumably this year) will be unable to do so.

This bill renders the act of obtaining a new private policy illegal, retroactive to Jan. 1 of the year signed. Destruction of the private insurance industry is apparently the urgently needed aspect of health care.

The moral of the story is to make sure the “firefighters” you elect are doing their jobs. Don’t let them replace working hydrants with bureaucratic bubblers, fire hoses with garden hoses, or water with gasoline.

Tags: health care reform, opinion, letters