Medicaid expansion would
add jobs for Georgia
I am a Republican and a former elected official, but I hate to see ads coming out that are just plain wrong. In the GOP Senate race, ads came out that said Rep. Gingrey was not a conservative. Regardless of how you feel about Gingrey, these ads clearly lied to voters. Similarly, a series of ads are now beginning to run about Jason Carter. Among the things stated is that Carter supports Obamacare which will cost jobs. This is highly misleading. First, more uninsured people have already been added to the Medicaid roles just because Medicaid is more visible now than before. This addition of insured people has created jobs in the health care field in our state. If Governor Deal and the legislature would actually implement the most important part of Obamacare, expansion of Medicaid, over 70,000 jobs would be created per a GSU study. And, the Feds would pay 100 percent of the cost for the first 3 years, gradually scaling back to 90 percent. What a deal, to use a pun, for Georgia.
JACK BERNARD, MONTICELLO
Obamacare opposition similar
to campaign against Social Security
In her excellent book, “Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood by Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour,” Lynne Olson recalled that “In August 1935, despite bitter Republican opposition, Congress passed the Social Security Act. Because of the ferocity of the GOP opposition, Roosevelt insisted that a prominent liberal Republican – John G. Winant – head the three-person Social Security board that would administer the new law.” In the final week of the (1936 presidential) campaign, the Republican National Committee supplied employers with millions of flyers, designed to look like official government notices, to stuff into workers’ pay envelopes. The flyers warned that a future Congress would divert Social Security funds to other purposes and intimated that workers could look forward to a 1 percent reduction in pay – the cost of their Social Security contribution – unless they took action against Roosevelt on election day.” The parallel of this with the current opposition to the Affordable Care Act is striking, and instructive. This reminds me of something Harry Truman once said, “The only thing new is the history you don’t know.”
DAN WEST, ATLANTA
Gun laws haven’t
triggered mayehm in bars
It’s been legal since 2010 for Georgians with a weapons license to carry a gun into a bar with the owner’s permission. It’ll be the same under the new law, except that if you walk into an off-limits bar by mistake, you can peacefully depart without losing your weapons license for at least five years. During the three-plus years the law’s been in effect, the rash of impulsive shootings in bars that liberals predicted has not occurred. I doubt that the new law will affect gun use in bars any more than the old one has.
JOE WILLIAMS, DOUGLASVILLE
