Aid to Hamas

Dear Secretary of State Clinton,
First of all I want to say that I have been a Republican for many years. Second I would like to say that I don’t believe I want to side with either Democrat or Republican at the moment. I think that we the people is where I side.
My subject today is the moneys that we have given to the United Nations Works and Relief Agency (UNRWA) from our pockets. This organization is basically run by the Hamas! There have been countless episodes where it has been apparent that the Hamas is in charge of this agency. From transporting armed Fatah members to the sponsoring of families of terrorist who attack Israel and suicide bombers. I don’t think that this is a good use of our stimulus moneys. I understand that we sent 1 billion US dollars to this agency. The past is the past, but I want you to make sure that we don’t finance terrorist in the future!
Thank you for your time, and I hope you truly listen to us and don’t just send me a canned answer.

Transparency

Dear Congress,

When our president was running for office, he claimed that he would increase transparency and that he would go “line-by-line” through the bills. So far we have not seen any attempt to do this. We Americans are insisting on transparency. There is currently a bill on the floor to say that you have to post a bill on the internet for 72 hours to allow congressmen and the public to review it. Amazingly enough, the is opposition to the bill in congress. We Americans are shocked that you would even consider such a short time for review. How can you expect our congressmen to fully read and fully understand a 1,000 page bill and somehow form an opinion on this bill in only 72 hours? Realistically we should be proposing a 2 week waiting period to digest such a bill. Who are you trying to fool? I want you to know that I will not vote for a person that would deny a 72 hour posting. I want you to push for a 10 working day posting. Remember, we employ you. We want transparency. We want a government that works for us. And don’t forget, we are watching how you vote.

Government Health Care?

The other day I was in Lake Havasu on vacation and ran across a couple in their 60s on vacation from Canada. I couldn’t resist asking them about their opinion since our congress wants to model our system after what they have in Canada. The husband was a business owner and the wife was a nurse, so I got quite different opinions.She says that she likes her health care system because everybody is covered. The only problem is that since they went to this system, the doctor to patient ratio is not as good. (and that makes sense since the same number of doctors and nurses have to service 25% more patients)He said that he does not like it because as he gets older, he needs periodic MRIs due to health problems and he can’t get them in Canada. The reason he can’t get them is because there is no immediate danger. So in order to assure that his health problem is not getting worse, he comes down to United States every year to get tested. He says that it is illegal for him to pay for health care in Canada. So he has to go out of the country. They both agree that if a person is very sick or in immediate danger, they can usually get attention within a week. There are those cases that slip by the system. And those are the ones you see on TV. But in general, the sick get taken care of. They also both agreed that it is very expensive. They claim that 48% of their wages go to the government since they went to this system. Another thing they mentioned is that when you are sick and in the hospital, 100% of everything is taken care of. That goes for everybody. But once you are discharged, you have to buy your own prescriptions. Therefore everyone carries insurance for prescriptions that they pay for out of their pockets. Personally I want the freedom to be able to choose exactly how much medical care I want. If I want to be checked every week and am willing to work extra to do so, I can. If I only want “major medical” care and pay very little, I can. If I want to supply my employees with better than average medical care, I can. But when I am a start-up company, and every dime counts, I cannot provide insurance. Of course then I suffer because the good employees go elsewhere until I can afford to provide it. But the company survives and lives to employ 100s in the future. (from experience) I don’t think this company could have started with having to provide insurance or pay the penalties as they are suggesting today. How many potential employers will we be preventing? And lastly, I don’t want to have to fly to Asia to get my medical care because a bureaucrat says my condition is not serious enough. No one denies that the current health care system needs reform. No one know better than Violeta and I. The medical insurance we provide for our employees has been going up about 20% per year. What we need to do is put an end to frivolous law suits and have governmental oversight of the insurance industry. But I mean true oversight, not what we got from Barney Frank and Chris Dodd with the banking industry. But a government run health care system is not to America’s advantage.