Letters to the Editor

I thought it quite cute the way Neil Davis copied the typos to a “T” in my last letter which refuted his ideas suggesting our country is becoming a totalitarian government. I can’t help it that the editor couldn’t read my handwriting (LOL).

Neil’s arguments against Social Security were almost convincing except that...idealistically, that would be great if people would or could save enough money for their retirement or pay for their own disability insurance, but realistically, this probably would not happen.

Most of us are “insurance poor” as it is, and when we were young and should have started a retirement account, that was the farthest thing from most of our minds. Just getting the critical bills paid was a struggle. Or if we could have, would we have invested wisely and successfully or would we have been tempted to do like our government has and borrow our own retirement funds?

I agree that grants may be over extended but most do stimulate the economy...carpenters are hired, materials, fuel, equipment, food, etc. are bought.

I just wish our two parties would get past the hate and hype and work together to figure out how to take care of those IOU’s and the rest of our country’s problems.

Our system may not be perfect but I don’t know where I would rather live. What would be the perfect system? Maybe next week we will see those ideas in the paper and we could send them on to President Obama—he says that he wants productive ideas and not just criticism.

If you love wine with your steak, pork chop or chicken breast, please know that Yellow Tail wines are not a good choice. Recently Yellow Tail announced a $100,000 donation to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Do not confuse HSUS with the local animal shelters, they have no connection whatever. HSUS is actually a very rich political lobbying organization whose chief goal is to eliminate all animal agriculture from the United States, forcing everyone into a vegan diet. We ask readers to refrain from buying Yellow Tail wines and share your opinion of its donation on its Face-book page or its Web site. Thankfully here in Nebraska we have many wonderful local wines to choose from and encourage readers to buy locally.

This is a response to Penny Fattig’s comments [in brackets] about my previous letter. Most research was taken from Wikipedia, which is not a be all and end all to fact checking, but sufficient to get my points across.

[Remember when the Republicans were in control six of the eight years of the Bush administration?]

No child gets an education and the prescription drug program? Socialism is socialism.

[The social ideas that spring up from the FDR administration included Social Security, disability unemployment compensation, Medicare, etc.] Let’s just forget that it’s all unconstitutional. Around 2017, revenue is projected to be insufficient to cover benefits. The system will begin to withdraw from the trust fund. The trust fund has been stolen (nothing but IOU’s). While the Treasury guarantees payments it makes to the trust fund, payments made to retirees have no guarantee at all.

The Supreme Court in Flemming vs. Nestor (1960) established that no one has any legal right to Social Security benefits. In July 2008 the Office of the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration calculated an unfunded obligation of $13.6 trillion for the program. To make matters worse, unemployment has cut the revenue going into the system and “Baby Boomers” will soon increase payments from the system. What position might all the people (in this system) be in had they been able to invest in their own personal retirement accounts and disability insurance, rather than being raped by the government?

[Lets have a show of hands...How many of us or if someone we know have benefitted from these programs?] Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, VT, was the first person to receive a monthly payment. In 1937, 1938 and 1939 she paid a total of $24.75 into the Social Security System. She lived to be 100 and collected a total of $22,888.92. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one.

[I thought it quite ironic that the totalitarianism letter...interestingly was published the same week as the article about the lady who received grants to repair her home from this government-I wonder if they forced her to take those grants.] The federal government borrowed (from our grandchildren), then forced states to take stimulus money for programs like this. When the federal funds run dry, states are left holding the bag and have to cut other areas of their budgets. Governor Heineman just called a session to do this.

[Under totalitarianism authority we would have state-controlled media only.] Two hours after reading Penny’s letter, I heard the president on the news saying “...just turn off the TV...”

[No, we do not have a totalitarianism government.] Never said we did. Our new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor quoted Norman Thomas, presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. His most famous quote is, “The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Response to: “Is Totalitarianism Here?”

I believe we are a long way from totalitarianism. We have a choice by means of voting which party controls the branches of government. This is a virtue of democracy.

Remember when the Republicans were in control six of the eight years of the Bush administration?

The social ideas that spring up from the FDR administration included Social Security, disability unemployment compensation, Medicare, etc.

Let’s have a show of hands...How many of us or if someone we know have benefitted from these programs?

As I recall, there was the same partisan conflict surrounding the Medicare controversy when it was introduced by the Democrats.

I thought it quite ironic that the totalitarianism letter, which told how banks were forced to take bailout money, interestingly was published the same week as the article about the lady who received grants to repair her home from this government—I wonder if they forced her to take those grants.

We have many different media opinions. Under totalitarianism authority we would have state-controlled media only. Criticism of the media is freedom of speech and does not mean the restriction of free speech.

No, we do not have a totalitarianism government.