published: Friday, August 03, 2012

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

YOUR OPINIONS

Government has strange way of helping the jobless

The government is saying it is trying to help United States citizens find work. There are 26 million people looking for a job. This is how the government is helping them. The numbers may be off a little but you will get the picture.

The government says there are about 12 million people here who came in the back door but the government does nothing about it. They are looking for the jobs you deserve. Now, the government has given 1 million people a right-to-work card to look for the jobs you may be looking for and deserve.

About 1 million people a year come in the back door that the government refuses to close, so they are also looking for the jobs you are looking for and deserve. Then there are about 1 million people coming in the front door every year looking for the jobs you are looking for and deserve.

Rumor has it that the government is bringing in 1,000 kids from another country so they can find jobs for the summer that your kids and grandkids are looking for.

I wish Paul Harvey was still around so we could hear the rest of the story. Did the kids come over here? Who paid for their transportation? Did they all find work? Where? Who is paying for room and board plus food?

Government sure has a far from common sense way of helping citizens find work, doesn't it?

Here is something to make your day. The government says it wants to pay off a little more than a trillion dollars off of our debt over the next 10 years. At that rate, we will be out of debt in about 130 years.

Do we really want four more years of this nonsense? I don't.

Thomas H. Abrehamsen | Eustis

Turn off the TV and then make your future happen

Much is being written and said about the dismal jobs report for June. A mere 80,000 jobs were created in June.

Thank the good Lord -- 80,000 is a lot better than none.

This is the 21st century. Automation has done away with many jobs. Try calling a place of business on the phone and all you get is a recording.

The bust of the housing market not only sent many developers into bankruptcy, it also put many craftsmen out of work.

Plants had to lay off workers who were producing appliances and materials to complete these houses. We were not just building houses, we were building subdivisions.

Gov. Mitt Romney has said, based on his business experience, he knows how to create jobs and, if elected president, the economy will come roaring back.

Who is he fooling? Himself?

Jobs are created by the demand for goods and services, not politicians. If we're going to put people back to work, we need to retrain them for the jobs that are available now and in the future.

The future of the United States and all our children and grandchildren is now! Wake up America! Don't wait for someone to ring your doorbell and offer you a job.

Turn off your television and make your future happen. There is no free lunch at the bar.

Mendell Black | Leesburg

Affordable Care Act's debate similar to Social Security's

The debate or battle we are having today over the Affordable Care Act is the same debate we had about 75 years ago on Social Security and in 1965 about Medicare.

The battle lines always have been the right against the left, progressives against conservatives, Democrats against Republicans.

After Social Security and Medicare were instituted, there was a dramatic rise in the acceptance of both programs. Both have approval ratings in the 80 percent range today.

Both programs still have small but well-financed opponents. The ACA, while not perfect, probably would gain rapid acceptance once implemented and is what the right fears the most about it.

The U.S. remains a lone holdout in the world in providing every citizen health care coverage.

Many presidents have made an attempt to provide some form of universal health care for all. Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton all made unsuccessful attempts.

The opposition to a single-payer system or some form of universal health care has always been strong in the U.S. Today, the opposition benefits from the Citizens United ruling, which allows unlimited money to flow in to fight against it.

The plutocrats and the wealthy have created the greatest propaganda machine the world has ever known in Clear Channel radio and Fox News.

Today, we have the tea party as a front group to carry the water for the billionaires such as the Koch Brothers. The agenda of the tea party is in perfect sync with that of the richest Americans, mainly because it was created by some of the wealthiest Americans.

We need to relieve employers of the responsibility of providing health insurance to their employees, as every other nation has already done.

We would have one of the greatest booms in entrepreneurialism if we created a universal health care system that relieved businesses large and small from this archaic responsibility.

It would also free individual workers to leave jobs they only hang on to for the insurance coverage.

The right move is to provide Medicare for all. The only question is how to best fund it. A large part of funding would come from eliminating the outrageous profits by insurance companies and drug companies.

We, as a nation, spend twice as much as the second nation in the world spends on health care. To reduce the cost, we must turn to a single-payer system as other nations have discovered as a way to reduce the cost of health care.

The problem with the ACA is that it did not go far enough in addressing the real problems with health care but it is a small step in the right direction. It tried to keep too much of the profit-driven present system in place.

Marvin Jacobson | Clermont