Expanding Medicaid would have been better use of stimulus funds
Thanks in great part to the current administration providing stimulus money to the state of Georgia, our politicians were able to give a $1 billion tax cut to Georgians.
Too bad they could not have used about $250 million of that to expand Medicaid. This would have allowed health care coverage for about 450,000 Georgians, created 15,000 jobs and increased tax revenues.
Much of this money would come to rural communities, where small hospitals offer good jobs and provide comfort to the community.
Remember the coughing person in line with you who has no access to healthcare may give you something worse than a cold.
MICHAEL E. MCCONNELL, M.D., ATLANTA
Don’t ask taxpayers to bail out those with student loans
In physics, every action requires an equal and opposite reaction. The same holds for arbitrary decisions, like canceling student loan debt. Unless other arrangements are made, the reaction will be an overwhelming decision to further punish the party in power by the many-fold number of taxpayers who are on the hook to bail out the relatively fewer recipients of such a program.
To avoid this, consider two other reactions by Democrats as a substitute to prevent this backlash: 1) A lifelong buyer-beware marker, to identify to future employers, spouses and friends that the person sitting across from them has chosen this path to freedom, or 2) an agreement that the loan forgiveness is equivalent to pleading guilty to a felony charge of theft by stealing with the subsequent loss of lifetime voting rights.
If that seems harsh, don’t worry, you can restore the marker and voting rights by simply repaying the forgiven amount -- with interest.
DOUG LOCKER, DECATUR
