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OPINION

Government gets money from working people

Saturday, December 19, 2009
(Updated 3:00 am)

This health bill is going to pass and then the real problem is going to start. This president is going to intrude on working people because that is where the cash is.

A government gives you nothing until it has first taken it from working people. Government has no money. It has your money, if you work. If you sell drugs or frequent the prison system, all of your needs are taken care of. I can understand why a goodly portion of the people like this new Santa Claus we have in the White House.

Redistribute the wealth and you get votes. Socialism did not start in 1932 with Roosevelt. It started in the late-1800s when we took the American Indians’ land and told them to lay down their arms and that we would give them land, which they already had, and free food, which they did not need. Until big government said, “We will take care of you,” they were self-sustaining.

Ken Sawyer
High Point

Comments

This letter has been closed to new comments. Comments are accepted on select letters to the editor between the hours of 7 AM and 5 PM, EDT, Monday through Friday.

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Doug Johnson

December 19, 2009 - 6:17 am EST

Good letter, sadly however you are going to catch it.
Liberals have been trained to let you know you owe it to them.
Free housing, food, health care, free abortions.
If you turn your attention to Raleigh yesterday, that had a meeting to allow illegals in your colleges.
They had it when, you are working and can not protest.
If you had have been able to protest, you would have been called a hater.
Look at the tea party people, they are hated by the liberal media.
Yet that praise those nuts, acting like asses at the Al Gore make me richer meeting.
In the Danville paper Thursday, (eight) people were protesting for free health care.
They got front page coverage,and a picture.
The tea party people had about a 1000 people in Danville, July 4th.
Want to guess what page they got?

Sawdust

December 19, 2009 - 12:58 pm EST

I see where Harry Reid just bought Ben Nelson's vote by agreeing to have the feds take all responsibility in paying for Nebraska's future Medicaid enrollees. Forever, I guess. Your federal tax dollars at work. I'm sure xeno won't mind paying for Nebraskans' care. Wonder if our beloved Sen Hagan will bring home any bacon for North Carolinians, or will she just blindly vote for a bill that she doesn't understand simply because she is a Democrat?

xeno10

December 19, 2009 - 7:12 am EST

Mr. Sawyer, It seems to me that i"ve "heard this song before." Was it just yesterday? Or, maybe this is just a paid right-wing Republican "political" advertisement? N&R, please explain why this LTTE does not appear today in the "classified-ad section." Seriously.

danagain

December 19, 2009 - 8:55 am EST

This letter was not in the print N&R yesterday and it is today. Whoever runs this site goofed truman.

ghost from white oak

December 19, 2009 - 9:42 am EST

truman, you of all people should appreciate redundancy, since you are so good at it.

Sawdust

December 19, 2009 - 11:33 am EST

Hey xero: Two questions for your unmistakably brilliant mind:
1) Why the need for secrecy in the health care legislation? Senators plan to vote on the bill Christmas eve. Not three of them will have a good working knowledge of what's really in the bill, as they have often admitted. Fewer than 5 will have read the whole thing.

And the public won't know what's in it until it is too late. If it is such a great bill, why do they meet behind closed doors and buy votes ($300 million or billion or whatever to Mary Landreau). If it is a great bill, Mary should vote for it without being bribed with taxpayer money.
2) Why the need for so much speed? The legislation, if enacted, will not deliver any medical care to anyone until 2014. Over 4 years, and we can't even have 3 days to read the final form. If it is such a great bill, it will still be a great bill next month. Or next spring.

I can think of only one explanation: It is a bad bill, and those pushing for its passage know that it is a bad bill. They know that it is not really about health care, but about the expansion of government control over our lives. That is why they must hide the details for as long as possible, that is why they must pass it before the public learns the details, why they must do the dirtiest work now, while people are distracted by Christmas.

What is your explanation for the secrecy and speed? Are you afraid to answer? It appears to be so.

What about the rest of you Obamaroids, pushing for this legislation? What is your explanation? Anybody?

Brekka

December 19, 2009 - 9:21 am EST

Actually, socialism was tried when the pilgrims came to Plymouth, and the colonists of Jamestown. Both attempts failed miserably. To verify the Plymouth attempt read William Bradford's book. It wasn't until Plymouth forced each person to make a "profit" to contribute to send back to England that the colony really began surviving. In Jamestown, we have John Rolfe to thank. His introduction of a cash crop to sell and make a profit to sell in England, provided a means to support the colony.

J D R

December 19, 2009 - 11:16 am EST

Actually, socialism was tried when the Indians came to America. Worked great for 10,000 years until the White Man came with Truth and Justice and Laws and Treaties ...

JGALT

December 19, 2009 - 11:47 am EST

Subsistence hunter-gatherers sharing berries and a buffalo carcass, hardly compare to central planned, division of labor, post industrial revolution societies that require incentive and innovation.

Conundrum

December 19, 2009 - 12:03 pm EST

It seems that things were going smoothly for the Native Americans until they encountered those who were keen on "...central planned, division of labor, post industrial revolution societies that require incentive and innovation." And look at where that chance meeting has gotten the "subsistence hunter-gatherers."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/us/14gangs.html?scp=1&sq=gangs%20on%20...

rightwingnemesis

December 19, 2009 - 9:42 am EST

Mr. Sawyer, your family has been a cornerstone of Republican politics for years in Guilford County. You must have found some notes from other family members. I would be interested in the Sawyer "take" on the 'Tea bagging' wing now taking over the party.

ghost from white oak

December 19, 2009 - 9:49 am EST

Even though I am not Mr Sawyer, I would like comment on the "Tea Party" you so crudely remarked on.
If you look around , this party is becoming bigger than the Dems or Repubs. It is much more like America than the clowns in DC today (either party). if you could get past yor hatred and distain for any views other than your own, you could perhaps see this.

danagain

December 19, 2009 - 10:36 am EST

Ghost notice there have been no reports of violence at the Tea Party rallies? Compare that to the violence of leftists in Copenhagen for the last two weeks.

tledford

December 20, 2009 - 6:45 am EST

This is true. Instead, the Tea Party rallies feature racist signs and slogans and implicit threats of assassination of the President of the United States.

rightwingnemesis

December 19, 2009 - 3:34 pm EST

Mr. ghost & Mr. Beachwalk,
The question was addressed to a man whose family has been a bulwark of the local GOP for years. The GOP has been surrendered to extremists who yell loud but couldn't muster enough folks last week for their Capitol assault. I will admit that a recent poll showed the "tea baggers" more popular than both the term "Republican" and "conservative". I respectfully agree to disagree about the damage they have caused to healthy debate. They make a mockery of civilized debate and they generally represent the least educated among Republicans.

tledford

December 20, 2009 - 6:54 am EST

"If you look around, this party is becoming bigger than the Dems or Repubs."

So you're saying that more than 36% of Americans are Tea Party folk? That's how many identify themselves as Democrats, even according to a notoriously right-wing pollster, Rasmussen.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/...

Where is your link showing that more than 36% of Americans identify themselves as Tea Party folk?

[crickets]

Beachwalk

December 19, 2009 - 10:36 am EST

I am one of those "tea baggers" and Proud of it.
One way or another we will take back this country from the left wing nut socialist. We will continue to fight for freedom and the constitution.
GET USE TO IT.

Sawdust

December 19, 2009 - 11:37 am EST

I'm with you. The vast majority of Republicans in Washington might as well be Democrats, they have completely lost their way. Here's hoping the Tea Party folks jolt them back to reality, if that is possible. If not, I guess we'll just have to kick their butts.

tledford

December 19, 2009 - 7:47 pm EST

And there are plenty of Democrats who are disheartened because most of the Democrats in the Senate have moved as far to the right as non-wacko Republicans (i.e., non-teabaggers).

And these Democrats are often disappointed, too (although not surprised, no one outside of Fox News ever thought Obama was liberal), that Obama has turned out to be so far to the right.

Sawdust

December 19, 2009 - 8:11 pm EST

You don't know your butt from buttermilk. B-Plus is about as hard left as you can get.

tledford

December 20, 2009 - 6:43 am EST

Thank you!

There are tens of millions of Americans who *wish* that *YOU* had any idea what you were talking about, and were (thus) correct.

But as always, you are INcorrect.

:-D

firerescuechick

December 19, 2009 - 2:52 pm EST

You know, I never understood why everyone loved Robin Hood so much. Don't get me wrong, it's a great story, however, Robin Hood was a criminal. He was a thief that stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Kind of like what Obama is doing, only he is not only stealing from the rich but the middle-class as well and then giving it to the poor who could change their circumstances, but would rather continue to suck off of the guvment teet.

Because, after all, we all know that the people that are willing to work in this country are the cause of these poor people's problems

dcolin

December 19, 2009 - 8:48 pm EST

Stealing?
Come now.

tledford

December 19, 2009 - 7:45 pm EST

The government took money (taxes) from the working folk for:

1. The 1.3 trillion dollar tax cut in 2001
2. The 7 trillion dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that started in 2001 (Afghanistan) and 2003 (Iraq)
3. The 800 billion dollar tax cut in 2003
4. The 1.5 trillion dollar Medicare part D (prescription coverage), unfunded
5. TARP (roughly 700 billion dollars) in 2008

Since none of that money benefited ANYONE except the super-rich, Haliburton (and its subsidiaries, along with all the civil servants who stole the 9 billion dollars in cash in Iraq) and the pharmaceutical companies, there are plenty of working folk who would much rather their taxes go to providing people with health insurance (and thus health-care) than for the kind of crap listed above.

I'll make the same suggestion I've made before. When each of us completes our tax forms each year, why can't s/he designate where his or her tax dollars will go?

If one person chooses to designate his tax dollars to subsidize 20 billion dollars worth of bonuses to crooks at Goldman Sachs, then fine. And if I choose to designate all of mine to the NEA, then that would be my right, too.

Would open some eyes, I think.

firerescuechick

December 19, 2009 - 8:04 pm EST

The problem is most working folks do not want their tax dollars to provide medical coverage to people. The majority of Americans are against the health care bill that the Democrats have weaseled through Congress.

tledford

December 20, 2009 - 6:41 am EST

You have a lower opinion of Americans than I do.

I think *most* Americans would RATHER have their taxes go to help people get health care rather than to help criminals get 1.7 million dollar bonuses rather than "settling" for 1.1 million dollar bonuses.

Sawdust

December 20, 2009 - 10:13 am EST

We have another truman.

firerescuechick

December 20, 2009 - 12:56 pm EST

That we do.....maybe this one has the ability (and the stones) to answer questions posed to him?

tledford

December 20, 2009 - 1:54 pm EST

US politics has moved so far to the right since 1981 that Harry Truman would be labeled a "hard-left" President, at least by faux sn00ze and the Tea Party folk. Hell, Eisenhower was a communist to these idiots; he used "guv'mint money for *highways*" and other such socialist nonsense, as well as WARNING us 35 years in advance about the dangers of Haliburton (the military-industrial complex).

So after thinking about it, I'm proud to be compared to Harry S. Truman -- thank you!

Oh yeah, and Truman tried to introduce universal health care, too, although the first President to try it was Roosevelt, as in TEDDY Roosevelt, one of the few worthwhile Republicans since Lincoln.

tledford

December 20, 2009 - 1:52 pm EST

"The majority of Americans are against the health care bill that the Democrats have weaseled through Congress."

No link provided, eh?

How do you support your contention when 60% want a public insurance plan option?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0210977220091203

Hmm, I wonder why 3 out of 5 Americans want a public option but "the majority" oppose the bill in the Senate? Might it be because a significant number (at least 13%) of Americans realize that the Senate bill *doesn't go far enough* in reforming health insurance?

Might be.

Twenty-eight years of right-wing domination of US politics and twenty-plus years of addled nonsense spewed by mentally-defective drug addicts have resulted in far too many Americans having no interest whatsoever in facts and just repeating what the other zombies tell them to repeat.

I suggest that such people try things like reading and forming their *own* conclusions instead of just parroting others'.

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