Seeking solutions
Your excellent front page story " 'Demographic tsunami' " (July 3), about the aging of our local population, highlights an issue that is building nationwide and has been forecast for many years.
Over the next 10 years, the first segment of the post-World War II "Baby Boom" generation will be attaining age 65. At 65, they will immediately qualify to participate in Medicare, and some months thereafter, depending upon their date of birth, they will qualify for Social Security.
Medicare appears to be the most immediate funding challenge, with a projection that, unless changes are made, the Medicare Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2024.
It appears to me that every attempt to craft a solution to the Medicare funding problem is rejected by the Democratic leadership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. First, the Ryan plan by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and, more recently, the bipartisan plan authored by Sens. Joe Lieberman and Tom Coburn and described by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as "a bad idea".
Most rational people realize that a solution to this funding problem will require changes in Medicare — changes for people like me who participate in Medicare today and changes in how health care will be delivered to those not yet in the program, understanding that doing nothing is not an option.
It would be interesting to hear what your readers, both those presently in Medicare and those wondering what is ahead for them health-care-wise, say about this.
CHARLES DONOHOE
Winston-Salem
A paradox
The current North Carolina legislature is a paradox. It allows the gas tax to increase to provide good roads; however, it cuts education spending so that the sales tax can be reduced by a penny. Good roads are important. A good education system is more so.
Rep. Thom Tillis, speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives, in the article "House speaker Tillis promises more overrides in July session" in the Raleigh News & Observer (July 7), states that many children who have not received the education they need in early life are being wasted as productive members of society. "They didn't have early childhood development opportunities," Tillis said. Yet, as speaker, he presided over the dismantling of programs that address this: More at Four, Head Start, the Teaching Fellows program and classroom assistants.
Years of research have shown that early intervention in education is the single most effective policy we can invest in. In other words, you need a strong pre-kindergarten program so that children can start school ready to learn.
In addition, the legislature eliminated the Governor's School, a long-standing successful summer program for N.C.'s best and brightest.
I am afraid that N.C.'s decades of progress and national leadership in education has been scrapped for want of a penny — a penny that the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians favored keeping.
The N.C. legislature's new education slogan is "Thank God for Mississippi." After all, it's the only state spending less on education per pupil.
ERNEST V. LOGEMANN
Winston-Salem
Denying benefits
As a registered independent, I look to find the good in both parties. And, as a retired military officer, I am especially sensitive to how our troops and their military families are treated.
It is with great sadness that I read about our Rep. Virginia Foxx introducing an amendment to the House version of the defense spending bill that denies funding for benefits such as housing, education, medical services and transportation to our gay and lesbian warriors and their families. Six fellow Republicans disagreed, but 19 Democrats approved, including Mike McIntyre, Heath Shuler and Larry Kissell.
This comes when many military families are in crisis and we are fighting two wars. How can you tell citizens who are expected to give up their lives that they and their loved ones are specifically denied benefits given to fellow soldiers? I see nothing conservative or patriotic about denying benefits to a class of service members and their families, and I see nothing Christian about joyfully tormenting God's gay children.
FRANK BENEDETTI
Winston-Salem
The people have voted
Just a short note on the July 7 Scott Sexton column, "Debate over library and debt is one for the books." I believe that we may need a lawyer to investigate the reluctance of our Forsyth County commissioners to build a new library. The people have voted to build a new library. How can a few commissioners stop the building? We voted, and now we are stopped by a few who no longer represent us.
GLENN YOKLEY
Winston-Salem
Over the next 10 years, the first segment of the post-World War II "Baby Boom" generation will be attaining age 65. At 65, they will immediately qualify to participate in Medicare, and some months thereafter, depending upon their date of birth, they will qualify for Social Security.
Medicare appears to be the most immediate funding challenge, with a projection that, unless changes are made, the Medicare Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2024.
It appears to me that every attempt to craft a solution to the Medicare funding problem is rejected by the Democratic leadership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. First, the Ryan plan by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and, more recently, the bipartisan plan authored by Sens. Joe Lieberman and Tom Coburn and described by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as "a bad idea".
Most rational people realize that a solution to this funding problem will require changes in Medicare — changes for people like me who participate in Medicare today and changes in how health care will be delivered to those not yet in the program, understanding that doing nothing is not an option.
It would be interesting to hear what your readers, both those presently in Medicare and those wondering what is ahead for them health-care-wise, say about this.
CHARLES DONOHOE
Winston-Salem
A paradox
The current North Carolina legislature is a paradox. It allows the gas tax to increase to provide good roads; however, it cuts education spending so that the sales tax can be reduced by a penny. Good roads are important. A good education system is more so.
Rep. Thom Tillis, speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives, in the article "House speaker Tillis promises more overrides in July session" in the Raleigh News & Observer (July 7), states that many children who have not received the education they need in early life are being wasted as productive members of society. "They didn't have early childhood development opportunities," Tillis said. Yet, as speaker, he presided over the dismantling of programs that address this: More at Four, Head Start, the Teaching Fellows program and classroom assistants.
Years of research have shown that early intervention in education is the single most effective policy we can invest in. In other words, you need a strong pre-kindergarten program so that children can start school ready to learn.
In addition, the legislature eliminated the Governor's School, a long-standing successful summer program for N.C.'s best and brightest.
I am afraid that N.C.'s decades of progress and national leadership in education has been scrapped for want of a penny — a penny that the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians favored keeping.
The N.C. legislature's new education slogan is "Thank God for Mississippi." After all, it's the only state spending less on education per pupil.
ERNEST V. LOGEMANN
Winston-Salem
Denying benefits
As a registered independent, I look to find the good in both parties. And, as a retired military officer, I am especially sensitive to how our troops and their military families are treated.
It is with great sadness that I read about our Rep. Virginia Foxx introducing an amendment to the House version of the defense spending bill that denies funding for benefits such as housing, education, medical services and transportation to our gay and lesbian warriors and their families. Six fellow Republicans disagreed, but 19 Democrats approved, including Mike McIntyre, Heath Shuler and Larry Kissell.
This comes when many military families are in crisis and we are fighting two wars. How can you tell citizens who are expected to give up their lives that they and their loved ones are specifically denied benefits given to fellow soldiers? I see nothing conservative or patriotic about denying benefits to a class of service members and their families, and I see nothing Christian about joyfully tormenting God's gay children.
FRANK BENEDETTI
Winston-Salem
The people have voted
Just a short note on the July 7 Scott Sexton column, "Debate over library and debt is one for the books." I believe that we may need a lawyer to investigate the reluctance of our Forsyth County commissioners to build a new library. The people have voted to build a new library. How can a few commissioners stop the building? We voted, and now we are stopped by a few who no longer represent us.
GLENN YOKLEY
Winston-Salem
LTE1: The only way some of our problems are going to be solved is if some, perhaps most, pols accept the fact that in order to do what's right, they may lose their next elections, IMO. What we see now is a shameful failure of nerve on the part of many pols and a subordination of public good to partisanship by many others. This is a non-partisan comment on my part, as I blame both parties. The fact is that correcting Medicare and Social Security, among other challenges is going to cost all of us, and we need to tell the political ostriches we elected to pull their heads out of the sand and get with it.
ReplyDeleteLTE2: The state budget's effect on education is debatable, as you can see from Jack Little's comment (currently below mine, but you never know where the comments will end up). However, teachers' and aides' jobs are being cut, along with the sales tax. That appears to be a contradiction in priorities to me.
LTE3: I am unfamiliar with the amendment, but if this is actually the case, Foxx should be ashamed of herself.
LTE4: The failure of the commissioners to act on the will of the voters, particularly when it's a buyers' market in construction indicates to me what a disconnect there is in general between government and the governed.
Grrr
ReplyDeleteJack Little's comment referred to above by Stab was here earlier in the day but now is gone, as are the two that I posted a few minutes ago.
I am suspicious of the ID verification system, which I had a discussion with my IT guy about earlier today. My business computers have a robust firewall and refuse to do business with the ID verification bot. They see it as an automated probe of their defenses and start yelling "The British are coming, the British are coming."
We'll see if this one get's up, and if so, how long it stays up.
Hello OT,
ReplyDeleteSorry for your difficulties. As time permits, I may set up my own website, and let this lie fallow. It shouldn't be that difficult for folks to post. For now, we will soldier on.