Benton wrong about slavery, secession
Rep. Tommy Benton objects to attempts to remove objects relate to the Confederacy. He’s doing some cleansing himself when he says the war was not about slavery. In the Georgia Declaration of the Causes of Secession from the United States, the word slave appears as slave, slavery, anti-slavery and non-slavery 35 times. Tell me again how it’s not about slavery.
M. A. APPLEGATE, WOODSTOCK
Lack of Medicaid expansion must be fixed
Georgia has hundreds of thousands of the working poor who fall in the gap between making too much to qualify for traditional Medicaid but not enough to participate in the federal healthcare exchange. Medicaid expansion was designed to provide a safety net for these low-income citizens. However, Georgia’s political leaders have refused to expand Medicaid, even though it is initially 100 percent federally funded, gradually reducing to 90 percent.
Gov. Deal defended his decision not to expand Medicaid by saying it would cost over $200 million in FY 2017. This amount pales in comparison to the $6 billion in federal funds that would have come to Georgia for Medicaid expansion. These funds would have provided a safety net for those financially unable to buy unsubsidized health insurance. They would have created thousands of jobs and improved the financial health of hospitals.
While the Governor is unwilling to expand Medicaid for the working poor, he is willing to budget taxpayer dollars to subsidize health insurance for state elected officials, state employees, teachers and retirees. He pushed for and received federal funds for expansion at the Port of Savannah, (a good thing) and for other initiatives.
In my opinion, it is inevitable that sooner or later something, under whatever name, will be done to provide access to healthcare for the working poor. In the meantime, as partisan politics continues, an untold number of preventable illnesses and deaths will occur. I urge the governor and legislature to correct this injustice during the current legislative session.
ROBERT A. CLAY, DESOTO
Is MARTA pulling bait-and-switch?
Am I alone in thinking MARTA is pulling a fast one with these new silver cards? My family has four blue cards purchased as recently as 2014. When we bought them, MARTA said they’d be good for 10 years from date of purchase. Now MARTA says “Hey we’re changing to these new cards and your blue cards will become useless in July 2017. You need to buy these silver cards and they’ll be good for three years.” Wait … what? That’s not what I paid for. Is this not the very definition of a bait and switch? I have complained to MARTA customer service about this, but they’ve blown me off telling me I can get a free silver card at one of their Ridestores. That gets me to 2019 but doesn’t compensate me for the lost lifespan of the cards that were supposed to be good until anywhere from 2022 to 2024. When I brought that up their response was, basically, “tough.”
MARTA cannot unilaterally change the terms of the deal each of its thousands of customers made when we bought our 10-year cards. The only way they can make this right is to issue free silver cards with the same expiration date as any existing blue card or allow us to continue using the blue cards until they reach their 10-year expiration. Anything less is stealing.
EDGAR LEICHT, JOHNS CREEK
Lives can be saved by observing seatbelt law
There is something disturbingly missing from the coverage of the tragic accident that took the lives of two children and their grandmother. The wisdom of high speed police chases can certainly be debated, but in this case, the aftermath might have been much different if the adult driving the car that was struck had been responsible enough to be sure her grandchildren were securely belted in. At least one of the children, perhaps both, was ejected from the vehicle; who knows how different the outcome might have been if a caring relative had observed this lifesaving law.
JAMES WILEY, DECATUR
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