Dear Editor:
The government recently loaned hundreds of billions of dollars to banks and industries only to realize that the consumer wasn’t benefitted.
Bank of America was the recipient of some of this largess, and to thank everyone for the assistance they received to keep them from going bankrupt, raised the interest rates they charge their customers.
I was notified of an 8 percent increase, which took the rate on my VISA card to 28.99 percent. When I called to complain about it, I was informed that I could have opted out of the increase. But if I did, my card would be frozen, and I would have to pay off the outstanding balance.
I guess that I was supposed to feel compassion for BOA, when the lady on the phone told me that they had to pay 8 percent interest on the money the government loaned them. Gee, I’m so sorry that you have been beset by such tragedy!
Just this week, I learned that the Obama administration wants to spend $1.5 TRILLION dollars over the space of one year to insure that everyone has government mandated health care. We have no fault car insurance, which we are required to have by government mandate. Now, we’re going to have government mandated health insurance? NO THANK YOU! I agree that everyone should have access to affordable health care. However, thanks to my wife’s employer, we have outstanding medical insurance, and the government wants to take that from us and replace it with what they say is better for us because they say it is.
Again I say, NO THANK YOU! This is just one more step toward socialism. If government health care is so great, why do we see so many Canadians coming to the United States for treatment? They come here so they can get life-saving treatment, before they die from their ailment.
What would go so much further to improving our health care system is to do something to improve the tort law system. Just look around Clearfield and see how many good doctors have been driven out of their practices because of skyrocketing insurance rates. It’s not because they’ve done anything wrong; it’s because juries have been awarding massive settlements to people who have been victims, to some extent, of doctors who did make a mistake. This in turn drives insurance rates up to where it becomes too expensive to maintain the insurance. Without that insurance, their practices can’t survive.
Let’s take a look at how fast money will be spent with the Obama health plan: $1.5 trillion over one year breaks down to $47,564.69 per second,
$171,232,876.71 per hour, and, brace yourselves, $4,109,589.041.10 per day.
Over $4 billion per day! Granted the government doesn’t care; it’s not their money. But I care, because my great great grandchildren will be working to pay off this debt. Lyndon Johnson tried and failed to win the war on poverty, and Barak Obama is not going to win this war by bankrupting millions of hard working Americans. The really sad part of this whole mess is that people die waiting for government healthcare; who’s going to take responsibility for that? The credo of socialism is “From each according to his means, to each according to his needs.” How long is it going to take before everyone is on the needy end of the equation? Hey, Congress, shift the spending rollercoaster to a lower gear while there are still a few solvent Americans left.
Charlie Wall
Curwensville