Hot air, not helium, lifts balloon
When you folks make a mistake, you ought to bury it in the classifieds, not put it all over the front page.
Allison Carter captured a nice image for your front page, showing a hot air balloon about to rise into the early evening sky. Too bad the person who wrote the caption was clueless.
The caption editor tells us that the balloon pilot “pulled the handle, releasing helium to inflate the balloon.” Actually, what the pilot did was ignite a flame thrower to warm the air in the balloon. When enough of the air is warmed, the balloon will rise, because warm air rises, and thus, lifts the basket attached to the balloon. Helium is for sealed party balloons.
Carter’s photo was of a hot air balloon, something the caption editor knew, but, obviously, didn’t believe.
JEFF BRIERE
Use tax dollars to support health
A spokeswoman for BlueCross BlueShield was quoted as saying in an editorial in your paper “It’s not financially sustainable to have only the sickest people come to your health plan.” That comment sums up the problem with the health care system in this country.
Health care should be considered an essential service and offered as such to all citizens through tax dollars, much the same way as protective services are offered. It is morally wrong to deny medical coverage to those who need it the most (those with pre-existing conditions or as the insurers so coldly refer to them as “the bad risks”).
If there is anything our tax dollars should be supporting, it’s our health.
Health Insurers are focused on profit, and that business model has no place in health care.
KAREN BELANGER
Cleveland, Tenn.
Overspending is main problem
Last week in Cleveland, Mr. Obama claimed that extending the Bush tax cuts for all Americans amounted to borrowing $700 billion over 10 years to give tax cuts to millionaires.
What he didn’t say is that his plan will add $3 trillion to the budget deficit over the next 10 years to extend tax breaks to (everyone else). But do we need to add to the deficit either way? No, we don’t.
But is this the time to reinstate taxes on an economy that is still on life support? Absolutely not.
Mr. Obama’s tactic is to pit the rich against the poor. But a worse mistake is to lump small-business owners and family farms into the same category as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and only they can provide the jobs that we need to get us out of this recession – something that a bloated government hasn’t been able to do.
Our root problem is overspending – which both sides agree we can’t address just now.
GERALD WHITELY
Ringgold, Ga.