Letters to the Editor

During the final weeks of the 2008 presidential election, we were hit with a well timed financial crisis. Despite the turmoil, candidate John McCain said “...the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” The left made him a laughing stock for that statement.

I thought it was the most profound statement I’d ever heard McCain make. He lost to Barack Obama, who I considered an economic illiterate. My opinion was based on Obama’s fumbling of a question about capital gains in an early debate. Reviewing the transcript of the debate, I discovered something I had missed. It wasn’t that Obama didn’t understand how lower capital gains taxes historically increase revenue. He just didn’t care.

Bringing in federal revenue is one of his top priorities, allowing business to profit is not. His ideology seeks revenue building only through taxation and doesn’t recognize that taxation kills revenue building stimulus. That our economy has endured four years of Obama, bears out McCain’s statement. In his latest State of the Union (SOTU) address, Obama said “…the state of our union is stronger.” I didn’t hear anyone laughing.

Obama won the “fiscal cliff” battle with Republicans. He got his tax rate hike on evil job creators earning over $400,000 and let the 2011 Payroll Tax Cut expire, affecting a 2% increase in FICA taxes for us peasants. Incredibly, Republicans were unable to effectively articulate the need to cut wasteful spending.

Obama claims that he has cut spending by $2.5 trillion, by not moving forward with proposed spending, i.e. no longer funding the war in Iraq. My banker will be pleased to know that I have decided not to buy the $375,000 Lamborghini I have been looking at. Thanks to Obama math, I now have $375,050.47 in my checking account and can easily pay off my loan.

The latest crisis stems from an Obama administration plan to force Congress to work together on budget cuts. Sequestration is a threat of cuts so horrible that Congress would surely make a deal before having to resort to them. Without resolution, Republican warmongers would agree to cuts in the military and Democrat humanitarians would be forced to look the other way (with tears in their eyes) while some of their constituents might not receive free Obama phones. All Nebraska’s Congress members but Ben Nelson voted for this idiocy.

Fearing that actual cuts may happen, Obama now wants out. His SOTU speech came too late for an Oscar nomination in the category of “best performance by a comedian in a dramatic setting.” His featured line was: If sequestration happens, emergency responders will have “respond” dropped from their name, border patrol won’t be able to find the border, prison gates will fly open, crime will run rampant, cities will burn, planes will fall out of the sky and teachers will be barricaded in the lounge, leaving parents without childcare.

All this and more will happen if the federal government spends $44 billion less than proposed from this year’s $3.8 trillion budget (1.2%). This is less than half of the $90 billion stolen for Obama’s green energy/campaign contributor money laundering scheme. We sure are lucky to have the president fighting for us.

As Dawson County volunteers gear up fundraising efforts for the American Cancer Society through Daffodil Days and Relay For Life, it’s exciting to note a new ACS report, released Jan. 17, shows the comprehensive efforts in the cancer control arena have contributed to a significant decline in the overall death rate for cancer in the United States.

Annual statistics reporting from ACS shows the death rate from cancer in the U.S. has fallen 20% from its peak in 1991. “Cancer Statistics, 2013” published by ACS also estimates the number of new cancer cases and deaths expected in the U.S. this year. The estimates are some of the most widely quoted cancer statistics in the world.

To read the report, go to www.cancer.org/research/cancerfactsfigures/index

I encourage you to reflect on this positive news and know your contributions make a difference in the fight against cancer. This information gives all of us hope that we will succeed in our efforts to save more than 1,000 lives from cancer each day, and that we are on our way to finishing the fight against this disease.

Thanks to everyone who volunteers to raise money and coordinate both of our local fundraising events. Thanks to everyone who donates money, goods and services to make our fundraisers successful. Your dollars help everyone in Dawson County!

If ever you hear the words “you have cancer” or if someone you love hears the words “you have cancer,” please call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 or go to the web page at www.cancer.org Having cancer is hard. Finding help shouldn’t be.

ACS High Plains Division Hero of Hope 2010

Senator Ben Nelson’s (12-26-12) letter to The Times is acknowledgement of the beginning of the end of an era. A recognition of diminishing ability for traditional Democrats to remain in the “Democrat” Congress. Nelson has witnessed the decline of bipartisanship, writing “Sadly...the word ‘compromise’ has become a dirty word.” My response is the same as I wrote (02-08-12) after Mary Kay Quinlan of Nebraska News Service asked in a letter “When did compromise become a four-letter word?”

It was Jan. 23, 2009. Three days after taking office, President Barack Obama responded to Republican objections against some provisions of his economic stimulus package. “I won. So I think on that one, I trump you.” This statement got very little media coverage. After nearly two years of Democrat partisan plunder and ramming through freedom killing legislation like Obamacare, a statement by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (10-23-10) about making Obama a one-term president, is still being used by the media as the definitive example of partisanship and even racism.

Nelson’s letter also acknowledged his success in getting federal funding for worthwhile state projects. He shares this effort with most politicians whose roles have been reduced to those of beggars. We send our representatives to Washington, D.C. in an effort to recover some of the money that the federal government has stolen from our state. I don’t fault Sen. Nelson for this. It took over 200 years to get here.

For all citizens to be represented, both sides need advocates expressing their positions. I have voted for Sen. Nelson because I believe that he truly does care about Nebraska and approached most issues with common sense. We have disagreed on more than several issues over the years, but he impressed me by being the only representative who responded to my letters and emails personally (not form letters). Usually he would rationalize with “it’s a good start” while I opposed there being a “start.” In our disagreement he never tried to deceive me about his intentions.

At a “town hall” in Kearney during the healthcare debate, he told me he would never vote for a bill that included taxpayer funded abortion. That was not my primary concern because taxpayers already fund it through Title X, but I accepted that answer because I knew the progressives/socialists would never throw Planned Parenthood out of the bill. I can only imagine the pressure Obama’s Chicago mob brought down on him (the “rack” and nailing of knees to the floor come to mind).

He eventually capitulated and voted for the bill. He went from hero to zero. The scourge of Obamacare may be impossible to rescind at this point and possibly forever. Voting for it was a bridge too far and Nelson was on the wrong side when the bridge collapsed. That being said, overall I think Sen. Nelson has been a good public servant because in essence he is a good man. There are far too few of those in Congress these days.

It has been a year since Bob and I moved back to our hometown, Gothenburg, and we are very happy we did. Not only did we find the right apartment to fulfill all our needs, but we were also close to our two girls. Another plus is living within walking distance to the hospital, doctors office and church.

Since being home, I have had some health problems and was pleasantly surprised to find a much improved hospital and very competent doctors and medical staff. I have had three procedures in the last few months and was so happy to be able to have all three done right here.

Gothenburg is a very blessed community to have such a great facility and competent doctors. Why would anyone go anywhere else when it is all available right here in our wonderful community?