POLITICS
The man Georgia needs probably can’t be had
Georgia elections are coming, and for most Georgians, they are not coming soon enough. Georgia will get a new governor, and it is obvious Georgia needs a change. What is less obvious is what change is needed or, more importantly, who should be leading the needed changes.
This person needs to be both an insider and an outsider: someone who can both annoy the left, and anger the right; who knows that sometimes government is the answer, but sometimes it is not. That person needs to be above moral reproach, and more concerned about good government than whether government is big or small.
This leader needs a proven track record. He needs to have connections to bring businesses and their jobs to Georgia. He needs to be someone who knows how to work with Washington to get Georgia its fair share, and he needs to be someone the people respect. Put simply, Georgia needs Sam Nunn for its next governor!
Clay Gunter, Woodstock
HEALTH CARE
Don’t defame the many unable to buy coverage
How nice that Fred Hahn was able to buy health insurance individually (“Readers write,” Opinion, Jan. 22). Unfortunately, many of us can’t. My husband was 20 when a major stroke left him partially paralyzed. No insurance company would give him an individual policy. His only recourse was to work for an employer that provided health insurance. Now that he is disabled and cannot work, I carry the health insurance for the family — again, through my employer.
I am not certain that President Obama’s plan is the best one. However, I want to know what other options we would have had without employer sponsored health insurance. Medicaid? Welfare? Living on the streets with our daughter, when health issues bankrupted us? It is people like Hahn, who assumes that everyone is as healthy as he, who have caused the health care crisis. If you have a better solution, propose it and work for implementation. But do not dare call my husband or me “deadbeats.”
Somewhere between the Obama plan and Hahn, there has to be a solution for people like us.
Carol S. Dial, McDonough
Massachusetts saw U.S. was heading wrong way
Who would have thought that the most liberal of states would have stopped the health care bill now in Congress “dead in its tracks”?
Even in Massachusetts, the people could see that this huge bill would help nothing and would give the federal government enormous new powers in our lives. Our health system needs changes, but this bill was not the answer.
Hopefully, Congress can now deliberate in a bipartisan manner and really help us all.
Bill Burns, Stone Mountain
Obama should focus on creating jobs
In “Americans should be ashamed of ourselves” (“Readers write,” Opinion, Jan. 21), the writer thinks anyone against the proposed new health care should be ashamed. The majority of Americans are against this new health care. Yet our president has his own agenda, ignoring what is more important: the economy and the loss of jobs.
Americans, whether they have insurance coverage or not, do want an overhaul. The writer is missing the truth — liberals are trying to shove this new health care through because they have control of the House and Senate. President Obama is pushing an agenda costing trillions that would not only harm our economy and cause additional job losses, but would create a tax burden.
Americans are much more intelligent than Obama gives them credit for. If we take care of the job losses and economy, more people will have insurance coverage. Then, as the conservatives have said, let’s overhaul and improve what we have now.
Our president continues to show his inexperience.
Ed Sitten, Cartersville
SECOND AMENDMENT
Too many loose cannons and stray bullets
I don’t know what is more dangerous — more people with guns, or a citizenry without guns. Right now, I have to worry about a stray bullet being fired by a trained police officer in pursuit of a criminal. If too many citizens are armed and untrained, then I have to worry about them trying to stop a criminal, and hitting me by mistake. With all the loose cannons that seem to be floating around, it appears that staying home more is the better option, with the hope a stray bullet will not be fired into my house by accident!
David Clarke, Buford
GOVERNMENT
Response to “Freebies and the people’s business should never mix.” Opinion, Jan. 22
Jay Bookman’s “Freebies and the people’s business should never mix” is right on the money. What politicians and lobbyists are doing is what I call “political prostitution.” In this case, however, the pols are not selling their own bodies for money, but the best interests of their constituents. And, to make matters worse, it’s legal. Unfortunately, the people of Georgia are paying for it. I hope I’m not the only one who is fed up with “business as usual.”
Sarah Cooper, Gainesville
TAXES
Testing preparers is no substitute for fair tax
In “IRS to oversee commercial tax preparers — at last” (CityLife, Jan. 17), Michelle Singletary lauded the fact that tax preparers would have to register and be tested by the IRS. She went on to lay the cause of problems as the number of changes to our tax codes.
While she is correct about our overcomplicated tax codes, why is she protecting a system that is unfair, expensive and time consuming — when she could have simply recommended the fair tax as a solution?
I suppose that reducing government payrolls to save taxpayer money, easing regulations and making everyone’s life simpler did not occur to her, even though her reasons for applauding the testing simply supported why the fair tax would be superior to what we have.
David C. Brown, Suwanee
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