Letters to the editor, September 6
September 5, 2012 4:34PM
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Updated: October 7, 2012 6:03AM
Support George Van Til
for surveyor again this year
As a resident of Lake County, I have one wish regarding the November elections.
I hope everyone will be open-minded and choose the candidates they believe will make the finest leaders for Lake County. Please do not vote based on what you hear or read from other politicians, newspapers, television, the Web, etc.
My friend, George Van Til, yes, I call him a friend, has a public servant’s heart. He has proven himself in his many years of service and has been a dedicated, hands-on surveyor. He works for the people’s interests. George is not scared of political pressure and promises continued improvement in Lake County.
Remember, your vote comes from you — not your political party, politician or friend. Stand up for your beliefs.
Give George your support. He is running, not the political party. He has proven himself worthy; check for yourself.
Kathleen Sinar
Hobart
Wealth gap does not create more jobs, only disparity
Has increased wealth disparity created jobs?
By 2002, America ranked 93rd among industrialized nations in income disparity between our rich and poor, worse than Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana.
From 1983-2004, of new financial wealth created, the top 1 percent received 42 percent; the top 20 percent, 94 percent. The bottom 80 percent received just 6 percent. Bush tax cuts for wealthy cost us $2.6 trillion.
Mitt Romney’s proposal: 33 percent tax cuts for the top one-tenth of 1 percent: Cost: $10.7 trillion in next decade.
From 1946-63, at 88 percent, our economy boomed. In 2012, at 13 percent, our economy presently?
Romney’s proposal: Complete defenestration of the Dodd-Frank Act on bank oversight, as weak as that is.
Paul Ryan budget plan: $3 trillion in cuts to programs for low-income Americans. It raises taxes on all Americans who make less than $30,000 per year. It includes preserving billions in taxpayer subsidies to transnational oil corporations.
Medicare, as we know it, ends. Health insurance for seniors becomes a voucher program resulting in seniors paying more than double out-of-pocket costs.
Medicare’s overhead: 3 percent. Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, annual salary: $199,700.
Corporate health care’s overhead: 20-30 percent. Stephen Hemsley, CEO of United Health Group, yearly compensation: $3.2 million. Hemsley’s supplemental retirement benefit: $10.7 million.
In 1998, the U.S. paid $4,178 per capita on health care. Switzerland, our nearest competitor, covered everyone at $2,794.
Ryan’s budget doesn’t balance itself for several decades.
Ryan’s budget will kill more than 8 million jobs over the next several years, with the unemployment rate rising to nearly 12 percent by 2014.
For whom will you vote this year?
Gordon Wilder
Highland
