POLITICS: Clinton achievements overblown by media
Regarding Mike Luckovich’s cartoon (Opinion, March 9), I think he has it nailed regarding the nature of Hillary Clinton’s towering presence over the landscape. I can’t decide if my favorite legendary feat of hers was wrestling that big blue ox and creating the Rockies; beating the steam engine by driving a tunnel through the mountain using only a hammer; or guiding Lewis and Clark to the Pacific. I also admire her Gettysburg Address and the time she split the beer atom. I’m having trouble remembering some of her other great accomplishments, but I know I can count on folks like Luckovich to help me out as we near 2016. Kudos once again.
SCOTT WALLACE, SNELLVILLE
EMERGENCY MEDICINE: ER costs aren’t factor governor says they are
Governor Deal’s comments regarding the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) worry me. To suggest — as a cost savings measure — that patients should be turned away from the emergency department in a time of need when there is no other option for them is heartless. It won’t save a significant amount of money, either. Emergency care in America is between 2 and 4 percent ($47.3 billion) of all U.S. medical costs, of which EMTALA-related care represents less than 10 percent (about $4.2 billion nationwide). Also, despite the widely held assumption that people are using the emergency room for unnecessary purposes, according to the CDC the vast majority (92 percent) of emergency patients are seeking care appropriately. The governor needs to come up with a better way to resolve the access-to-care crisis in our state than cutting off what often is the only medical resource for these people, the ER.
JOHN ROGERS, PRESIDENT, GEORGIA COLLEGE OF EMERGENCY PHYSICIANS
SOCIAL PROGRAMS: GOP tactics got us in current financial mess
I am concerned that the country has an amnesia epidemic. Many people have forgotten that our economy was in a downfall unequaled since the Great Depression. The failed GOP policy of “trickle-down” economics was shedding 700,000 jobs a month; the stock market was in a meltdown that impacted many 401(k)s and other retirement funds; the lending markets were frozen, and the housing market was a shambles. Yet many people want to hand over the keys to the Treasury back to the very party that caused the problems in the first place.
One reader (“Push for equality an excuse for socialism,” Readers write, March 12) seems to feel income equality would move us closer to socialism. That is a scare tactic that has been around since 1947, lead by Joe McCarthy. The right wing will divert your attention with socialist fears while they promote a fascist form of government where the country is controlled by the few. Our democracy has survived quite well with social programs. If you attended public schools, that is a socialist program. Raising the minimum wage would reduce food stamp dependency, as well as other social programs. While memories of 2007-08 are still on our mind, we need to leave the GOP on the sidelines.
JOHN LESCH, CEDARTOWN
