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novakt's comments:
on RX: Health Care by Christmas?
I have just a couple of questions for the guests and Mr. Obama
With the economy reeling from the current economic climate and a projected cost of the health care bill starting at 1 TRILLION dollars who is going to pay for this with unemployment so high and more cuts coming?
If this is such a wonderful plan why is the president, Senate and congress not proclaiming they will go on the plan when it and if it becomes law?
The answer to these are easy, the American people will be the only ones to suffer the fate of this plan. With (as mentioned on the radio) about one million people from the western states who will have insurance that did not have coverage, it seems the cost will be a little high form my point of view.
One little point I feel should be said and it was said by a Republican, Democrats seem to be more interested in getting the votes instead of crafting a good bill! With votes along party lines are we the people getting the best value from the people we elected? No!
Since when does the government have the authority to be in the health care business or is this another of the rights they have given themselves
Like I said above if this is so great then all of the people should be on the plan including the government bureaucrats!
posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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on Recovering PERS
As I listened to the program I felt that the whole discussion was essentially one sided. I felt that the moderators did little to promote a genuine discussion and even took a few “pot shots” at public employees. With bashing the public employees and the benefit packages that are in place please remember that there was a time that no qualified person would apply for the positions due to the lack of pay. Now that the economy has turned down people are looking for the bad guy who has more than they do. When I took a public sector job seventeen yeas ago I sacrificed pay for the benefits package. I am thankful for having a retirement package, ask TWA employees how great their package is.
One major point I want to make is that all public employees are your neighbours, friends or acquaintances. Only one person I know has the ability to create money, Obama! The rest of us just recycle the money back into the communities and the state we live in. We also pay taxes for services just like the rest of the residents of Oregon. We also support the communities we live in through local stores and businesses. We (public employees) also provide the services that are essential to running the State of Oregon the same services we all rely on.
When you are in a bind do you call emergency services like the police or fire department? Last winter when we had heavy snow a public employee gave up Christmas with his family to plough the road so we and our neibors could get out. Last winter two public employees at my employer worked 36 hours straight to keep the plant from polluting the river with sewage. Do you really want to continue bashing dedicated employees that care about the communities they serve!
I question the projections that were expressed on the program. Please correct me if I am wrong but these look at the worst case scenario and are rarely correct if ever. To threaten cuts in emergency services is just adding to the “scare” tactics that are constantly used. Please remember that (a guess) virtually all of the money paid in retirement benefits for public employees stays in Oregon keeping our economy going. It (the money) is recycled back into the state we live in.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Paying Per Mile
This sounds like a good idea but is flawed in many ways. Motorcycles paying the same fees as cars with less rubber on the road and softer tires to boot. Car pooling, how fare is the system going to be with this. I can go on and on, when our wonderful state cannot even provide for school funding with out raising taxes or proposing more taxes do you really think the gas tax will go away? With goverment knowing only one thing "more spending on a new program" taxes will only go up. Thanks Ted for another bad plan.
I am paying more and more for the services, food, taxes and utilities I use, I would like to see better fiscal responsability as a starting point.
For those of use that are a little older and remember these, with enough PR a pet rock sounded really good but in the end you purchased a useless rock. I see this as another pet rock, it sounds good but is another waste of money. Here is a great idea, put it up for a vote for the people of Oregon and let the people decide!
posted 4 years, 4 months ago
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