Letters to the Editor for April 17

Congressman's policies show he's out of touch

Congressman Joe Heck calling the ending of Medicare and fast-tracking cuts to Social Security sensible in a Las Vegas paper really rubbed me the wrong way.

First of all, Medicare is a great program, and it works. I don't know where I would be without Medicare. By removing Medicare as we know it and fast-tracking cuts to Social Security, Heck is sending future generations back to the days when the senior poverty rate was more than 50 percent. That's not somewhere I want to see my children and grandchildren.

By privatizing Medicare, the GOP budget plan, backed by Heck, turns Medicare over to big health insurance companies. We know painfully well that they are wont to choose their profits over our health. Medicare was created in 1965 so seniors would not have to live in poor health and poverty. The GOP budget plan that Heck supports abandons this long-standing American. In fact, it is a recycled agenda, the descendant of Newt Gingrich's 1995 hope that Medicare would someday wither on the vine.

The clock would also start ticking on Social Security if the budget plan passed, quietly beginning a trigger that would cut benefits and raise the retirement age. Republicans are trying to sneak in a legal provision that would allow benefit cuts instead of doing it overtly.

Heck needs to start making some better decisions - ones that reflect the people of Nevada first, not just his party or some outdated ideology.

Scott Watts

Minden

Obama's immigration enforcement words are not reality

At a town hall meeting in Washington, D.C., President Obama again called for comprehensive immigration reform which would legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

Administration officials are now touting their record on immigration enforcement and border security. They are trying to convince the American people that their approach is working and that the legalization of illegal immigrants will fix any problems.

When comparing the Obama administration's rhetoric with their record, it appears their words are not reality.

Homeland Security Janet Napolitano recently said that the administration's approach to border security is working. Because deportations are up, apprehensions are down and more resources have been deployed to the border, the administration assumes the border is more secure than ever.

It appears the administration has exaggerated its record. According to a December 2010 Washington Post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials used questionable methods to achieve their record deportation numbers.

In fact, ICE included more than 19,000 immigrants who had exited the previous fiscal year.

During the last fiscal year, over 460,000 individuals were apprehended trying to enter the country illegally - and those are just the ones we caught.

In the last five years, more than 34,000 people have been killed in Mexico due to drug-related violence. And the violence threatens to spill over into the United States.

To secure the border, we should fully honor the request made by the governors of border states for National Guard troops stationed at the border.

Donald Jackson

Carson City

Time to cut out foreign aid and spend money in U.S.

The current budget situation in Washington has gotten my attention. I have, after 71 years of being on this earth, figured out what is wrong in D.C. Both Houses of Congress are full of old politicians.

After watching our current Nevada Legislature in action, they too are full of old politicians. What I mean was summed up by our own old politician Harry Reid when he made a comment to the House speaker that he shouldn't pay that much attention to the new House members elected by "We the People" and sent to Washington to stop unnecessary spending. He indicated the new members don't understand the way things work in D.C.

Harry, maybe they do, and it is time for our government to come to current reality of life and budget for today and not for the 1960s and post- World War II attitudes. It is time to cut out foreign aid and put that money into our own people. It is time for the government to quit supporting so-called nonprofit organizations and let them raise their own money or go belly up.

If the government shuts down, I blame Obama for his lack of leadership, and Reid and Pelosi share in that blame because they had control over both houses and didn't pass a budget.

 Bill Pyatt

Dayton

Did Obama, Holder have knowledge of ATF stings?

It's been several weeks since we learned that Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in a gun battle with Mexican criminals.

Since then, we have learned that the ATF conducted stings as part of a Phoenix-based operation code named Fast and Furious involving the deliberate facilitation by the ATF of sales of firearms to known straw purchasers for the Mexican drug cartels.

Most ATF street agents objected, suspecting that these firearms would end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. U.S Attorney General Holder, Barack Hussein Obama, and ATF management overruled them and allowed more than 1,700 weapons to cross the border.

It was determined one of the smuggled rifles was involved in the murder of Agent Brian Terry. Limited investigations by the press and congressional representatives were launched. Obama and Holder denied any knowledge of the operation.

Investigations are ongoing, but some of these inquiries into Operation Fast and Furious reveal that its real purpose was to flood Mexico with firearms to justify additional budget increases to ATF and to justify new and more draconian federal gun laws.

If these allegations are true, U.S. Attorney General Holder and the Obama regime allowed ATF to become rogue, and must be held to account.

If you paid any attention to the election of Harry Reid in November and Obama in 2008, you will understand that we cannot hold them accountable at the ballot box. Remember ACORN, SEIU, and leftist billionaire George Soros?

John Arndell

Dayton