Readers views: Trump’s work + Social Security benefits
Keeping his promises
I read with interest the anti-Trump letters of Christina Owens and Richard Harkness. Both were obviously convinced that there was solid negative evidence against President Trump. I wonder what their sources of information were.
To many of us the House proceedings have been a one-sided sham. Some say as much as 80% of our news sources are anti-Trump. Often these sources only present one side of the news, and omit or downplay information favorable to the other side.
A typical example is the minimal, or complete lack of, coverage of the annual January March for Life in D.C., which has drawn many thousands of Americans and others to D.C. every year since the Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973.
President Trump, in spite of incredible opposition, has in fact done a lot of good things and endeavored to keep his campaign promises. Unlike President Obama or Hillary Clinton, Trump has been a strong pro-life advocate.
In addition to two well-qualified appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court, he has made a very large number of well-qualified appointments to lower federal courts. A very significant achievement has been the resounding improvement of the economy. To those who may not fully recognize what much of our media is feeding us, I invite you to read Mark R. Levin’s well-researched book “Unfreedom of the Press.”
Harry R. Hull Jr.
Pass Christian
Paying attention
The various “Medicare for all” plans that Democrat presidential candidates are running on are pure insanity.
When my wife and I turned 65 we signed up for Medicare Part B. That is a program we both paid in to, along with Social Security, throughout our working years. Despite that, money is now deducted from our monthly Social Security checks to pay for the limited Part B coverage. The amount deducted from our Social Security checks for next year will total almost $300. That is approaching the monthly amount I paid for private health insurance when I was working. My private health insurance covered prescriptions, dental, hearing, vision and a few other things that Medicare Part B does not. Ironically, those are all types of coverage that are needed more in old age.
Despite the annual increase in monthly payments for Medicare that you paid for all of your working years, the program along with Social Security, is speeding toward insolvency. So now these candidates want to put this budget-busting program, that is not close to giving us the coverage we had with private insurance, on steroids and put everyone on it. My hope is that the American people are paying attention and see not only how this will drastically increase our debt, but will ultimately degrade our health care system.
Paul Stultz
Ocean Springs
Stop the hate
Don’t criticize. Stop with the hate of this newspaper. There’s just as much anti-Trump rhetoric as there is pro-Trump. And just because you can’t get over Hillary losing, calling the president a constitutional threat is no different that calling Trump voters deplorable. Show Trump voters a real crime and I’m sure most would agree with impeachment.
But for 3-plus years the only thing the president has done is make America great again and I mean really great. Just look around.
The career politicians inside the beltway were afraid of an outsider who might actually do a better job putting America first and helping all Americans regardless of your party. So for those three years they have tried to destroy the man, damn the economy, the jobs, the growth and the future. All Democrat presidential candidates have promised to roll back all the accomplishments made by this administration. which is just as ignorant as calling this paper biased.
Malcom McBee
Gulfport
Not so bad
The G.I. bill of WWII gave a college degree to nearly 9 million veterans at a cost of $4 billion.
However, that cost was recouped through the higher taxes paid by the recipients. In other words, it was an investment, not an expense. Given this actual success, Bernie Sanders’ proposal of adding two years (of vocational training) to public education does not look so far-fetched. Most trades require only two years of training and tradesmen earn more than unskilled labor.
For those wanting college, it is easier to pay for two years than for four years.
Bruce Emerick
Carriere
Earned benefits
Trump’s election ushered in a serious decline in support for senior citizens and low- and middle-income families. School lunch and breakfast programs were severely cut, WIC funds were reduced and thousands of low-income families lost their food allotment, even though many were single mothers working two jobs to make ends meet. Personally I, an 81-year-old senior who started paying Social Security at age 16 and Medicare at its inception had my pharmacy bills go from $38 monthly to $168. Each time Social Security benefits are increased so are medical payments, resulting in a less monthly Social Security income.
The Trump administration has now decided to take away Social Security Disability Benefits from millions of more disabled citizens. Do not think these are people who are “faking it” as I so often have heard. I have a friend on dialysis three times weekly whose daughter lost her benefits just in the last four months. This girl has both petit mal and grand mal seizures many times a week. She was deemed no longer qualified for disability because she has been determined to be “able to work.” When her Social Security was stopped, she also lost her $100 food stamp allotment, and her seizure medications, sentencing her to an early death.
Republicans tried over 70 times to end “Obamacare” and now are in federal courts trying again to accomplish what President Obama with his veto power and Congressional Democrats were able to stop.
Wake up people, and pay attention to what constitutes an attack on lower- and middle-income Americans.
Shirley A Miller
Kiln