Editor, The Transcript:
I am not one the "fat cats feeding at the health insurance trough," but I feel constrained to answer Larry Steele's letter in last Sunday's Transcript ("More Power to Pelosi.") I am, figuratively speaking, a skinny cat feeding at the Social Security and Medicare troughs. I did not enter into either of these programs voluntarily: I had made other plans, but they were obviated by the U.S. Congress. So I, a supposedly "free" citizen, am held in thrall by a government that forces other supposedly "free" people to pay for my benefits.
Beside the issue of personal freedom is the simple facts that neither of these programs are sustainable. At some point in the foreseeable future, benefits must be drastically reduced, the payroll taxes must be substantially raised or both. The only other possible outcomes are to print more paper dollars, renege on the programs or kill all the old people.
Mr. Steele says that, "(House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi is leading a wave of change to help the uninsured get insurance so that the rest of us don't have to keep paying for their emergency room visits with our increased premiums and deductibles." Does he truly believe that having the government pay somehow shifts this burden from the rest of us? Maybe he agrees with those who say," "Don't tax you. Don't tax me. Tax that feller behind the tree."
I'd also like to respond to his slur against Fox News: The Fox News Channel has well-balanced news programs, but they should be distinguished from the opinion shows on the same channel. To find out what has happened, I read The Transcript, watch various news shows (including portions of Fox News) and cruise the Internet. To find out what's going to happen, I watch Glenn Beck. He may be far right, but he's right so far.
LARRY IOVAN
Slaughterville
