Nation is sliding into third world
An outstanding book has been published recently that demonstrates this country's slide into ignorance. Charles Pierce has written "Idiot America, How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free."
Reading this book will give one the understanding where Sarah Palin and the Tea Party are coming from. In addition, the right-wing Republicans could be enlightened by this tome.
Watching our country become a third world country isn't pretty, but neither is the slide into ignorance. We are doing this to ourselves, and too many are cheering as it happens. The media help gullibility along by adhering to what Pierce calls the three great premises of idiot America.
First premise: "Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units."
Second premise: "Anything can be true if somebody says it loudly enough."
Third premise: "Fact is that which enough people believe."
Myth over science has taken this country down the wrong path that we may not be able to turn around before we slip over the cliff to the destruction of our Constitution and our way of life.
WILLIAM BETTS
Health reform is needed now
A recent study showed health care rose to an estimated $ 2.5 trillion in 2009.
Without health reform, bankruptcies will rise due to medical hardship. Our government will pay. This is not a presidential issue; it is a human issue. We need help.
Twenty years ago, I had a urostomy because of a rare disease. I recently lost my Medicaid due to cuts in Tennessee. Now I have to reuse dirty catheters. One week after being cut I was at the ER with a severe kidney infection. I can't pay my bill. I also have Crohn's and back problems from a tumor.
I drew Supplemental Security Income until my husband was injured in '95 and had to draw his Social Security Disability. Mine ended that day. If I were to divorce him I could draw again. An illegal could draw SSD off their spouse even without a child in the home. I can't.
I'm 53, disabled, with no medical help. You could be in my shoes next. We need health reform now. Call your senators, your congressman. Tell them we want health care now.
THERESA HALE
McMinnville, Tenn.
U.S. can't dictate how we use money
The U.S. government has two chief purposes: national defense and the protection of citizens' lives, liberty, and property. Put another way, the purpose of government is to defend citizens from aggression and infringement.
In no sense does national health insurance fall under the government's purview. To achieve it, the government must take from some, in the form of taxation, to give to others. Any taxation not directly connected to the safeguarding of life, liberty and property is illegitimate.
Mandatory health insurance, such as President Obama advocates, is an extreme example of government compulsion. Our money is our property, to dispose of as we see fit. Whether a private citizen chooses to invest his or her property in health insurance, or anything else, is of no concern to the government. Any attempt to dictate how we use our private property is sheer coercion and deserves to be resisted.
BEN M. WOLK
Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.
Democrats cut taxes, create jobs
Which party has a better plan for job creation?
The Democrats have cut taxes for all Americans earning under $250,000. If you weren't aware of this already, you will be by April. Not one Republican applauded this fact when it was pointed out during the president's State of the Union Address. Pretty odd, considering they are the party of tax cuts. Tax cuts for whom, though?
When Democrats cut taxes for lower- and middle-class Americans, they have more money to spend on goods and services. If more people are buying things, more jobs will be created.
Republicans, on the other hand, believe that if you cut taxes on the very wealthy, they will magically start creating jobs out of the kindness of their hearts. Why would anyone create a job just because they've gotten a tax cut, especially when there is no one to buy your goods or services?
If there is demand, there will be jobs. Prosperity comes from the bottom up (Democrats) not the top down (Republicans).
HELEN F. STAPLETON
Sewanee, Tenn.
Corporations gain too much power
Our nation is moving fast toward a Fascist state. Corporations are gaining more power thanks to five Republican Supreme Court nominees. This should scare Americans more than "socialism." Many don't understand economic systems. Fascism of Mussolini inspired Nazis in Germany and the Spanish Falangists. Understanding Fascism is scary when we see what's happening in our country.
William O. Douglas of the Supreme Court said, "socialism/communism is no danger to us, it's a bogy man." Capitalism is not sacred! Capitalism caused the Great Depression and our Great Recession. Millions of Americans are suffering, but Republicans oppose everything Obama tries to do.
They realize the only way to win is for Obama to lose; the country doesn't matter. The party of Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower is no longer. These men wouldn't agree with today's Republicans. They fought corporations and worked with Democrats to help Americans.
Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission shredded a century of law precedent. This decision gives corporations the power to spend $millions to elect or defeat a candidate, and the corporation can be owned by Communist countries. The Free Press will tell you it's free speech. Does it make you happy that a foreign corporation has more "free speech" than you?
WILBOURNE C. MARKHAM
Signal Mountain (Walden)
Politicians should learn fairness, hope
Most people worry about the national debt. We remember the budget surplus when Clinton left office. What happened to that? We worry that the interest on the deficit will reach the levels of the first Bush administration.
People want less government spending except when it helps them. Tea Party folks concerned about "socialist" policies should write their congressmen to repeal Medicare. Most older, white Tea Partiers have government insurance, but do not want others to have it. I have Medicare (which was better before it was privatized) and want everyone to have it equally as they do in other industrial nations.
The $100,000 keynoter Sarah Palin presented no new ideas: tax cuts for the rich did not help the economy. She resorted to negativism (making fun of "hope" and "change") and name calling. Has she been studying Joseph McCarthy's tactics against President Truman and others? That was a dark chapter in America.
The Tea Party should have invited South Carolina's lieutenant governor, who has a unique idea for cutting costs: stop feeding stray animals and poor people because they reproduce.
Politicians should learn from the football Saints and the Colts, who demonstrated hope, fairness, grace and respect.
JANE STARNER