Steven Weiss
Boonsboro
Can government be trusted to run health care?
To the editor:
In the fall of 2008, I received a letter from Social Security saying that my benefits (S.S. deductions have been paid by me since I was 16 years old until I retired) during the year 2009 would increase by 5.8 percent because of the rise in the cost of living.
Good news, right?
That's not how the government figures things; they took out more money for Medicare and more money for taxes, so as it ends up, my 5.8 percent increase in fact is $100 LESS each month in Social Security benefit pay. No COLA for two years just might be a good thing considering government math.
Is it any wonder that I worry that the government wants to take over my health insurance? When I go to a town hall meeting or a Tea Party, I'm not some freak or wacko, but a very concerned voting citizen. Thank you for the offer, but no, I know first hand just how much "your offer, your help, your thinking" will affect that situation, too. Please, I'll handle my health insurance myself by reading all of the information available, which is more than many of our voting representatives are doing, and making the best choices for my household. Your interference isn't necessary for my good health.
My husband asked me to add that the scariest sentence in the English language is: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you!"
Judith B. Sasmore
Keedysville
Permit process getting even slower
To the editor:
Business runs on money and government permits: environmental permits, transportation permits, building permits, permit permits. Business can not take place without a government permit of some sort. But with recent cutbacks, permits are slow to ooze forth from the already crippled bureaucratic machinery.
Applications for permits that got turned around in days now take weeks. Business then suffers because it may only move at the pitiful pace of our sundry governments. This means people might not be hired back any time soon to earn taxable wages. This means permit offices cannot be staffed to move the vital permits. This means, well ... you get the picture ... but not your permit.
Magnus Dahlgren
Hagerstown
