Retirement funds stolen
I received a letter from Sen. Mike Crapo this week in which he said Social Security will be lacking funds in 2011. At that time I will be 77, homeless and begging for food. I have to ask, "How did this happen?" There is a problem of long duration. For many years, the U.S. Congress has been as bad as Enron and the two Fanny groups, which spent the pension trust funds of thousands of American citizens. The falling stock market and bank failures accounted for many more retirement accounts being lost.
I am old enough to remember the first time the Congress spent the Social Security trust fund, almost 50 years ago. It was publicized, and a promise was made to repay it. Of course, it was never repaid. The Social Security trust fund became the "pork barrel" for senators and representatives to spend millions in their home states to ensure their re-election. ...
H.R. 219 will put a stop to the raiding of the Social Security Trust Fund. Call and write your senators and representatives in the House to vote yes for H.R. 219.
The upcoming raid will be President Obama's plan to extend Social Security to thousand of illegal aliens. This will bankrupt Social Security at least a year earlier than 2011.
My children are within a few years of retiring on Social Security, and if nothing changes they will have nothing. My grandchildren are paying into Social Security and will never see a dime. ...
This out-and-out theft has got to be ended, or all those on Social Security today will become homeless. ...
This country is just on the edge of denying senior citizens a comfortable life before they die, and the men and women we elected to the United States Congress are the thieves who destroyed our retirement. ...
Jack Stratton
Orofino
Government meddling
... I would like to refute the uninsured numbers President Obama and his followers in Congress come up with. Fifty million is a ridiculous number. If it is true, and I don't believe it is, many of those can afford a decent policy and choose not to. Many are young and feel "I don't need it," because they are "invincible" at their ages. Expensive wheels, tires, cars, homes are more important. About 9 million of those "uninsured" have adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000 and choose not to cover themselves.
The health care system in America is the best in the world, bar none. Why get government involved in another huge area of our lives, taking control (and they will eliminate the private insurers over time as they have huge tax advantages and pay nothing to borrow money) of such a large amount of our GDP? The word is control. Liberals want control, and can't stand that we can do "it" without them.
Let's fix what we currently have. How about states allowing all viable, financially sound carriers to sell insurance in the states? Would that not increase competition and promote lower prices? As it is now, there are not many choices in Washington and Idaho to select from, yet I can sell and buy a life insurance contract from hundreds of companies.
How about the president and Congress taking on trial attorneys? Maybe the doctors, who have been accused by Obama for ordering tests that are unnecessary, would not have to be so worried about being sued as easily. ... Oh, I forgot, trial attorneys are one of Obama's biggest contributors. ...
Though I am forgetting many poorly run government programs here, let's just reflect on these for a minute. Housing and Urban Development (the projects), Social Security and Medicare - the largest Ponzi schemes in history - Amtrak, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac come to mind quickly.
Mark A. Vuchetich
Lewiston
