Letters to the Editor

Health-care law is threat to liberties

To the Editor:

If Congress has the power to force Americans to have health insurance, then individual liberty would be overpowered and thus become meaningless. No matter what certain elected officials may desire, there are some things Congress simply cannot do under our Constitution. We do not want the federal government or any group of bureaucrats policing our private medical records.

The legislation that Congress passed on March 21, popularly known as the “Obama Care healthcare reform bill,” contains such a “mandate,” and now becomes a threat to individual liberty and the sovereignty of the states.

Sure, we must improve healthcare, but not by government taking over our country in a way that endangers our freedom that we have fought for and many have died for. We must now support actions to stop this intrusion into our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren. Most states are already making laws to keep overzealous government from grabbing their money to support it.

Most left-wing liberals want nothing more than a free right to entitlements that they have not earned and what other hardworking citizens pay for with their tax dollars. We must work hard to vote out of office at our primary and general elections those who would challenge our freedom with a government taking control of our lives from our cradle to our graves.

Isn’t the freedom we have enjoyed for so many years worth it? And should we not continue to pass it on to future generations?

Milton Schrader, Alexandria

Time to take care of those we elected

To the Editor:

Why is it, during these weeks and months of controversy over a public health bill, none of the politicians involved have answered the question “Why not give the people the same insurance Congress, the president and his family and government workers and their families have?”

Surely these people are not burdened by premiums they can’t afford or lack of treatment. Isn’t that what the whole deal is about?

It’s time for the Americans in charge to take care of the Americans who elected them.

Bonnie Johnson, Gregory

Global warming isn’t a government issue

To the Editor:

Everybody is so worried about global warming. If it really was a reality, there wouldn’t be anything we could do to stop it. In the book of Genesis, the eighth chapter, verse 22, it is written: “While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.”

This should be all we need. A promise from God that we will always have the seasons as long as the earth remaineth.

I’ve listened to quite a few radio shows talking about global warming. They do not believe that anything we would do to cut down greenhouse gases would be enough, percentage-wise, to even make a dent in the emissions into the atmosphere.

They also believe that this trend of going green is just a big money scheme. They are going to make people pay for the amount of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere. This is just going to cause our prices of electricity and oil to skyrocket. Once again, big business will be putting our money into their pockets. Poor people will have to decide whether to pay for heat or buy groceries.

I really believe that the government should keep their nose out of global warming issues. This will not only drive up prices of everything, it will put a stop to small businesses trying to start up. So there would be more unemployment. Going green is all around a very bad mistake.

Frank Larry Hayne, Alexandria

Has editor given thought to TV guide?

To the Editor:

I have been hoping your editor would put the weekly TV guide back in our Saturday paper. The TV guide is one of the features that I look forward to. I pay for two subscriptions.

There are other subscribers who would like to see the weekly TV guide. Has the editor given this any thought?

Amy Behrendt, Salem

Two S.D. politicians: How are they doing?

To the Editor:

Just a few thoughts about Gov. Mike Rounds and Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin:

Rounds vetoes scholarships for the needy. He supports the “heck no” South Dakota Republican policy and wants to waste money fighting health care in court. Herseth Sandlin votes against the right to good health care and clean air.

Consider, if you will, that on June 11, 1944, during the height of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a fireside chat, addressed the nation and was thinking about our present-day problems more than 60 years ago. He said every American should have:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or mines of the nation.

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his produce at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.

The right of every business, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.

The right of every family to a decent home.

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.

The right to adequate protection from economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.

The right to a good education.

It went without saying that every human has the right to breathe clean air.

In the light of Franklin Roosevelt’s speech in 1944 and the right to clean air, how would you rate Rounds and Herseth Sandlin?

Put another way, “What are they good for?”

John Simpson, Hamill

Health-care debt will bankrupt the nation

To the Editor:

What the health-care bill will do to America:

1. Create an unsustainable debt that will eventually bankrupt our great nation.

2. Degrade America’s predominant economic standing in the world.

3. Burden America’s children and grandchildren for generations to come with crippling debt.

4. Sacrifice America’s unborn and frail elderly on the altar of a fiscally rationed health care.

5. Erode the God-given rights of all Americans to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

6. Diminish the average American’s opportunity for gainful employment to support his family.

7. Destroy America’s medical care for the poor and elderly and retirement for the elderly.

8. Corrupt America’s political system by ignoring the people’s will and its two-party system.

9. Usurp our state’s rights through an ever-increasing power-grabbing federal government.

10. Subvert our founding fathers’ sacrifice and vision portrayed in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Joseph L. Pengitore, Mitchell

Congress works for us — not us for them

To the Editor:

When Ben Nelson sold his vote for the Cornhusker Kickback, I called him a political whore. Mary Landrieu from Louisiana sold her vote for $300 million. Kent Conrad from North Dakota sold his vote so the Bank of North Dakota could be the only bank in the nation giving out student loans. Jim Costa and Dennis Cardoza from California sold their votes for more water from the Department of Interior. Bart Gordon from Tennessee got $99 million for a hospital. James Matheson from Utah was promised a judgeship for his brother. The list of Democrat political whores goes on and on.

But the biggest disappointment of all was Bart Stupak, the so-called pro-life Democrat. He only got $700,000 for airport projects in Michigan to sell his soul, with a promise from Obama, the most liberal pro-abortion president in history, to strike taxpayer funded abortion from the bill. Obama gave his word … and we all know what that’s worth.

There are no pro-life Democrats in Congress. And Blue Dog Democrats, that’s just a code word for “we don’t need your vote this time, but maybe later.” They’re all Democrats and the Democrats in power now have a socialist agenda: cradle-to-the-grave rationed health care for all, citizens and illegals; taxpayer-funded abortions for all; ownership of the auto industry; control of the banks and soon-to-come state-run pharmaceuticals; national sales tax; and 60 to 80 percent income tax in 10 years.

Part of the bill they just passed was for 16,500 new IRS agents to enforce the health-care regulations.

It’s a sad day to think what my ancestors went through to build a life for me and my family, only to see socialists take our freedom away.

We still have one thing left they can’t take away — yet. Our vote.

Let’s vote out every Democrat in Congress and every incumbent Republican who hasn’t responded to their constituents’ wishes.

They work for us, we don’t work for them.

It’s our government, not theirs, and it’s our money, not theirs.

It’s time to wake them up.

Gregg Hubner, Avon

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