VA problems
What we’re seeing is a precursor to Obamacare
The Veterans Administration (yet another Administration) scandal on veteran health care benefits is nothing more than ‘Slow Walking’ patient support to reduce costs. They believe by taking this devious action, veterans with serious and costly medical issues will likely die before treatment. One can project this model a little further into Obamacare with the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which will oversee whether patient care will be approved (remember Death Panels?). What has been projected the past few years is now happening! Government controlling life or death is here today! America, wake up before it’s too late!
RICHARD WILSON, WHISPERING PINES, N.C.
Current president, like others, deserves a vacation
To the letter writer today complaining about President Obama taking vacations at taxpayer expense, think about this. President Obama has been in office for 64 months. During that time, he’s taken a little over 90 days’ vacation. President G.W. Bush, during the first 64 months of his terms, took over 370 days. There is an ugly double standard here, don’t you think?
MICHAEL HUDGINS, ATLANTA
Political system problems span parties
I read “It’s Deal vs. Carter” (News, May 25) and it admirably gets to the point: “Gov. Nathan Deal heads into his re-election summer and fall bolstered by .. .campaign checks flowing in from big statehouse interests … [b]ut battling ethics questions.” And what should we know about Carter? He’s “a fresh-faced Democratic opponent with a famous name who can raise money from Georgia millionaires, D.C. lobbyists and Hollywood big shots.” While money isn’t the only thing that matters, the story is an important reminder: without major donors and vested interests on their side, no politician stands a chance. Moneyed interests are the gatekeepers. The vote is just a referendum on candidates who are successful in the market for favorable donations and expenditures. If big spenders of one sort or another don’t approve of a candidate, you’ll never get to vote on that candidate. That’s the general rule and a reminder that our system of government is not at all what it claims to be.
TIMOTHY K. KUHNER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, GSU COLLEGE OF LAW
Non-answer on Obamacare vote says much
Michelle Nunn has a very good, practical reason for not answering the question of how she would have voted on Obamacare had she been in the Senate when it came up, “Nunn mum on health act,” (Opinion, May 25). She knows good and well that the legislation was terribly flawed but was shoved down the throats of Americans by the Democrats anyway and that there are more Americans that resent it and don’t like the program than are for it. However, as Jay Bookman points out in his Sunday column, of course she would have voted “Yes,” but not because “…it gets down to basic values,” but because it gets down to basic partisan politics. Had she voted her conscience and her intellect, she would have been ostracized by her Democratic comrades, become impotent as a Senator and unsupportable by her party for re-election, which, by the way, is why it passed the Democratic-controlled congress at all.
DAVID PAUL, SANDY SPRINGS
