D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
May 2010
Editor's note: Last month's editorial
on Rep. Harry Teague's vote against health-care reform brought a nearly unprecedented outpouring of letters, pro and con. In that same issue, we invited responses to Larry Lightner's Ramblin'
Outdoors column on global warming. Our Letters column, in short, runneth over. Thanks, readers, for all your comments.
Teague Talk
This is in response to your very bias editorial on Mr. Teague. You're an obvious yellow dog Democrat, I'm sure you know the meaning. You obviously get all your news from MSN, MoveOn or the Huffington Post.
I'm a registered independent and voted for Obama, Teague and most other Democrats. I'm also against the health care bill. Granted it has some good things but most of them don't take effect for several years. If all those 30 million are expected immediate coverage then they're going to have a long wait. Your comment about the sausage making is very timid. This was the worst corruption process in recent history. Where is the new politics Obama promised? Where is the change and the transparency? You'll probably ignore this email, like most yellow dog Democrats you think it was all the Republicans' fault or Bush's fault, that the Democrats can do no wrong. You even take the Pelosi approach and are willing to sacrifice one of your own to get your way. THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS. That's the same logic that the radical terrorists use to justify their cause and destruction.
As for your comment on Medicare, it was bipartisan and had almost 100 Republicans supporting it. It was also supported by over 50% of the population unlike the health care bill which is not favored although people including myself want reform. Less than 20% of doctors are in the AMA and if you think the CBO is a good estimator then I have some land on the dark side of the moon for sale. The CBO has not been accurate on any prediction. Medicare is costing 10 times what it was estimated,
Obama shouldn't have given this to Pelosi and Reid to write and should have taken control. He should have included meaningful tort reform, but obviously didn't want to upset the trial lawyers. Yeah, HOPE AND CHANGE.
Finally how is this going to be paid for???? Cutting Medicare? Forcing insurance on people?? Taxing insurance companies and medical providers that will just charge more. If you think this is going to cut the deficit and cut premiums then I want to remind you of that acreage on the dark side of the moon for sale.
Bob Zeissel
Las Cruces
Your comments on Harry Teague are spot on! I just sent him an email regarding the health care bill and the fact that I had thought I voted for a Democrat, not a conservative Republican. I got the usual "canned" response from him. Just more rhetoric, and his list of what he is doing for vets, etc. In fact, when he was here in Silver City last month, I asked him why when I email him all I ever get is a "canned" answer. Well, he said he would have his staff look into it!
Middle American needs to put down the bag of potato chips, get up off the couch and vote for "none of the above"! Democrats or Republicans in Congress are doing nothing for this country and nothing for its people. The only way we are going to get REAL change in this country is to vote all the Dems and Reps OUT! And get rid of lobbying, which is really nothing but corruption, corporate bribes. Those people have voted themselves a very profitable, cushy life, at the taxpayers' expense! That means voting for any of the other "third" parties and if there are none, then I for one, am going to put down, NONE OF THE ABOVE! This could be our "great revolution at the polls"! Let's not go down the path of keeping the same greedy, hypocrite liars in office while this country continues to "go down the toilet"! Wake up, America!
Oh, and P.S. to Rush Limbaugh: You said you would leave the country if any health care reform passed. I have a taxi waiting for you! When you get to Costa Rica, tell us how well that government single-payer health care system there works for you.
Pat Wolph
Silver City
You sure gave poor Harry Teague both barrels, proving the truth of that old saying, "Hell hath no fury like a liberal scorned." (Well, it ought to be an old saying.) I was surprised he voted against the health bill, which inspired your wrath, after he had lined up so dutifully to kiss Nancy Pelosi's derriere on the cap and trade bill. Gosh, maybe he actually read this one, all 2,704 pages. Maybe he didn't like all those extra IRS agents metaphorically knocking on our doors in the middle of the night.
Maybe he didn't like the part that opens up the states to lawsuits if the states don't deliver adequate Medicaid care. Talk about tort reform!
Maybe he thinks people who believe CBO projections could better spend their time buying bridges from strangers. (The CBO, whose accuracy is about as good as a stopped clock, a couple of weeks ago said that Social Security's cash flow would not go negative in 2016, as they had forecasted, it would go negative THIS YEAR!)
Maybe he thought the mandatory insurance provision was unconstitutional, as do many of the states.
Maybe he just used a little common sense: Why assume the government can run this new program any better than Social Security and Medicare, which have run up $40-$50 trillion in unfunded liabilities?
Of course, poor Harry, as you pointed out, has "only a high-school diploma."
You sound like Bill Maher, the comedian (?) who thinks that since us common folk are so stupid we can rarely name our Congressional representatives, it's obvious we need an elite group of our educated superiors to lead us. Like many liberals, Maher mistakes ignorance for stupidity, which is really stupid. The average person may not know who their senators are, but they damn well know a goose-steppin', jackbooted Brown Shirt wannabe when they see one. HEIL COMRADE OBAMA, Herr Maher?
I don't put you in that camp, Mr. Fryxell. Anybody opposed to the Spaceport is not likely to think "government" should always be capitalized, I just suspect you suffer, like most liberals, from moral and intellectual certitude.
To borrow from William F. Buckley, I'd rather be ruled by the first 535 names in the Silver City phone book than by you and any 534 editors of your choice from all the dailies, weeklies and monthlies published in America, even though there wouldn't be a one with "just a high-school diploma."
Peter Burrows
Silver City