District 2 changes call for new representative
I have lived in District 2 for 20 years, and in the last five years, North Chattanooga has been overdeveloped instead of being preserved (as stated by the North Shore C-7 Design Review Committee that was created by the City Council).
Apartments, condos and houses are squeezed into every tiny space; crime as well as traffic congestion has gone up drastically.
It is time for a change within our City Council. Please vote for Mickey McCamish.
Marie McMellon
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Trump’s first 30 days not reassuring
Trump’s first 30 days:
Controversial Bannon appointed to National Security Council; questionable secretarial appointees confirmed via closest votes in history; protests follow.
Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigns for having late December “discussions” with Russia; unconstitutional Muslim ban overturned by courts; president criticizes select judges and says judicial system is broken; Yemen raid (Trump first military action) results in Navy Seal killed.
Trump reconfirms his respect for Russian’s Putin in Fox News interview; reverses position on Taiwan independence after China discussion; now supports one China; eliminates or plans to eliminate regulations designed to protect U.S. citizens (i.e.; Wall Street, big banks, Dodd-Frank, etc.); threatens to withhold federal funds for sanctuary cities; supports “alternative facts” as way to legitimize untruths; approves Keystone Pipeline that creates reported 39 full-time jobs.
Wow.
Canada benefits; supports Kellyann Conway’s ethics violation commercializing his daughter’s apparel line; receives huge pushback relative to repeal of Affordable Care Act.
Heaven help us!
Ralph DeCicco, Ooltewah
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ACA reforms ignore reality of rising costs
The too-obvious question that never gets answered about the ACA is how can $10,000 per capita per year (and rising) for medical costs be reduced so everybody gets more benefits at less cost?
This whole discussion strikes me as irrational and completely nonsensical. In my 70-plus years of life, I have observed that insurance premiums follow the money, but not only that, the goods and services also follow the insurance and rise to take advantage of benefits.
In other words, the more we insure, the more everything costs and the higher the premiums go. And now with rising deductibles and premiums no longer fully subsidized through employee benefits or welfare programs, everyone’s crying foul.
What did we and politicians think – that medical costs could go through the roof and be provided at less expensive costs to consumers? What kind of illogical thinking and math is that?
According to columnist Bradley R. Gitz in “Here to Stay” (Thursday Free Press commentary), “the welfare state… always grows larger.” Its cost will eventually end the discussion in the poverty of socialism.
Politics today is the art of denying reality and the inevitable.
Bob Miller, Signal Mountain