How do politicians sleep?
Saturday, March 15, 2008 5:47 AM PDT
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E-mail this articleHow do politicians sleep?
After the election, Medicare and Social Security will not be on the table. How many times have politicians used these words? Both of these issues are a big part of senior citizen life.
Two years ago a bill was before the Senate; it would allow Medicare to buy drugs directly from the manufacturer. The bill was defeated. This bill affected the lives of millions of American citizens. Thanks to Sen. Bill Tauzen and 12 of his fellow Republican senators, this bill was defeated.
Keep in mind that the Veteran's Administration buys medicine directly from drug manufacturers and passes the high savings onto veterans, charging only $8 a month for medication.
On the talk show with Tim Russett, Tauzen praised his fellow senators for defeating this bill. When asked by Russett if he would work for a drug manufacturer for a fee of $2 million, he answered yes. Several of his friends now have their own company as lobbyists with drug manufacturers as customers. What a surprise. How do these guys sleep at night?
How often have we heard that Social Security will not be there when you retire? If politicians did not keep taking money from the Social Security fund and then leave IOUs, the fund would be strong for many years. Seems that every administration is guilty of dipping into our Social Security fund.
Carmen R. DeFlumeri
Kelso
Don't be too judgmental
In regards to the letter from Nancy Murphy, I would like to make a comment.
Does Nancy look down on all women whose husbands have strayed because they didn't gain their spouse's respect? Or is she blaming these women for their husband's indiscretions?
Sounds very judgmental to me. I admire Hillary for being able to go on and make her marriage work. As Jesus taught us forgiveness, maybe we should all practice it. It must have been a very difficult thing for her to do.
Patricia A. Strode
Longview
Entertainment? Not
In the March 6 paper, where or when does the obituaries and police blotter information become entertainment? Whatever happened to Area News?
I get more disappointed every day in the paper. I used to enjoy reading, and paying 75 cents for The Daily News is too high for what we get in print.
Sorry, but we've already stopped buying Friday and Sunday papers.
Rosemary Baker
Longview
Student support lacking
It's too bad the Kelso High girls' basketball team got little, if any, student body support this season. They deserved much better.
For the first state game on March 5, the school offered a rooter bus, but a grand total of four students signed up. Four people. That has to be some sort of record low for the school that once outranked all the others in terms of pride and tradition. The rooter bus was cancelled due to lack of interest and the four students who signed up rode with the band and cheerleaders, instead.
As a result of the disappointing show of interest for the March 5 game, the school did not even offer a rooter bus for the March 6 game. Fortunately, though, the 28 pep band members and 12 cheerleaders went along to support the Lassies and to carry out all the cheering for the rest of the school's 1,700 students.
Congratulations, however, to members of the girls' basketball team who enjoyed a great season and set their jaws in fierce determination to make it all the way to state, with or without the school's student support.
Jacob Schmidt
Kelso High student
Not founded on Christianity
America had a fling with theocracy in its very beginnings. Several different waves of English immigrants arrived and quickly established their Christian laws and rules over their communities. They also quickly showed that when religions gain power, they can turn very nasty. Even other Christian denominations were persecuted against, sometimes violently.
Our founders understood this danger. Many were deists, not literal followers of the Bible. Jefferson even rewrote the Bible, cutting out sections that to him were nothing more than fables. They knew, from the history of the Roman Catholic Church, the behavior of the Puritans, etc, that when religions rule, there can be no democracy. Instead, they modeled American laws and the set up of our political system, on Greek and Roman models. Secular models.
Here is a part of the Constitution that reads as a separation of Church and State: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." How does this read Christians rule and other religions drool? To make it even more plain, the Treaty of Tripoli has: "The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
Linda Birk
Longview
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