Turn the negative into a positive

From: April Olson, Winsted (former resident Dassel-Cokato)

I want to write and ask this: Mr. Anderson, because I do not live in Dassel or Cokato, I have no right to write and complain about something occurring in the community?

I lived in the area most my life, my family members – one of whom was the one being harassed at Swan Lake Cemetery – makes Dassel his home. But because it is not him writing and complaining, it should not be made public?

I am not by any means saying the whole community is like the children depicted in my previous letter. But know this, my uncle visits often on Sundays and says that this is not the only time these children have done this. It is, however, the first I heard of it, and it really got to me.

This cemetery is where many of my family members are buried too, dating back to the early 1900s. I was not judging either community or the church where these young members went. I just wanted to get this out there for others to read in hopes that the parents would do something so that we, and others, may visit in peace.

I would like to express my appreciation to the pastor from the church who called my mother at home to offer his apologies for these children and also had these children apologize to my uncle for harassing him just days after his father died.

I feel that anyone has the right to complain about or make public something that is occurring in the community. It is a way for the community to turn a negative incident into a positive learning experience.

Failure is not success

From Brady Ernst, Dassel, formerly Lester Prairie

The Democrats have been ranting about special interest groups derailing their “health care” reform bill (it is health insurance reform, by the way).

Democrats say, or maybe even believe, that the reason that citizens are against their reformation of an entity that consumes 17 percent of our entire conomic Gross Domestic Product is caused by evil special interest groups.

The first problem is that the Democrats control the entire federal government, outside of the Supreme Court. So, if they want to get rid of the special interest groups, why not make their first move an end to lobbyists? Ban lobbyists from contacting any elected official or a staffer. Boom, problem solved.

The Democrats do not want this, though. They are just as funded by special interests as the Republicans are.

The main problem with all of this is the Democrats have one of the largest special interest groups in the country, dictating the reform they want. The special interest group I am speaking of is the Democratic Party.

Tying as many people as possible to the federal government guarantees dependence on the party of “here, we will take care of even more.”

The Democrats’ biggest constituencies are the poor and minorities. Blacks have been tied to the Democrats since Civil Rights reform. The poor have been tied to the Democrats since the New Deal.

They will expand minorities with amnesty, and they will expand the poor by imposing crippling taxes and easing government dependency.

The steadfast dedication of the poor and blacks to the Democrats has done nothing to produce benefits for these two groups. At best, both groups have stayed in the same position as they always have been in.

Blacks’ employment rate is actually lower than it was four decades ago. Lower and middle class wages have been stagnant, since both parties subscribed to free trade dogma. Education declines, while incarceration rates increase.

Just exactly where have people’s lives been improved by the billions we have spent on social fixes?

Leading up to the passage of Medicare, we were told that one-fourth of one percent added to the Social Security taxes would cover all of Medicare. When it was passed, the amount rose to a full one percent.

The income cap, adjusted for inflation, was about $45,000 per year. After you made over $45,000, you would not pay in.

Now, the rate is 2.9 percent on every dollar we make, with no cap. Initially, Medicare cost a total of $20 billion a year, adjusted for inflation. The 2008 Medicare cost us $462 billion.

Can you imagine – if they are even half as wrong this time as they were last time congress tried “fixing” our health insurance?

This health issue has nothing to do with helping us. It has everything to do with expanding the DFL’s constituency – and it will.

How many families do you know that has one spouse essentially working for solid health insurance and, for the most part, the rest goes to daycare?

How many of these people will continue to work if the government offers a plan? Once these folks are tied to the government plan they will never be able to break free.

Taking people out of our workforce in droves will curtail any economic advancement. People will go from producing to simply consuming tax dollars. That can only go on so long.

The costs of this are figured off of the currently uninsured, that number will certainly grow, and that growth will come as the workforce is shrunk. So, those of us that decide to continue being productive will take up those that do not’s burden.

Next, do you honestly believe that the Democrats are not plotting amnesty (the same way the Republicans did) for the more than 12 million illegals that invaded our country?

The Democrats will not feel the backlash from their base that the GOP did. Once the Democrats accomplish this goal, coverage will be offered to the newly found constituency, and the Democrats will control the country. The entire country will turn into a giant Chicago-style one-party system.

For the half a dozen or so folks out there who watch MSNBC – yes, it is written in the bill that illegal immigrants will not be covered. Only no structure was put in place to make sure that people going for coverage would be checked for citizenship.

So, essentially, the protection is this – people who decided to illegally sneak into our country would not attempt to get coverage they are not eligible for.

Proponents told us in the 1960s that changing our immigration laws would not bring a flooding of illegal aliens. At best they were wrong. At worst, the same intentions were driving the debate four decades ago.

New aquatic amendements proposed

From: Bill Lacoe, Minnesotans for Healthy Lakes

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is proposing new amendments to the rules governing aquatic plant management that will greatly impact you.

This is a Minnesota legislative directive to recoup the entire costs of implementing the aquatic plant management program through permit fees. The major change in these amendments is in the fee schedule for permits to control vegetation.

Currently the permit fee is $35/property with a cap of $750. The proposed change will be $90/property with no cap. The DNR is also adding revisions to the rules without going through the whole review process on these changes.

The DNR held two advisory workshops last fall in St. Cloud to discuss these changes. Approximately 20 people attended these meetings. The attendees were mainly lake residents, association presidents and commercial applicators. Those participants strongly suggested that if the DNR increased permit fees by over 250 percent, it would lead to non-compliance and not be in the best interest of Minnesota lakes.

They also suggested that the DNR needed to cut its expenses and improve the efficiency of its permitting process to reduce its budget. All attendees were opposed to a large increase in permit fee and removing the cap for lake associations and were optimistic that they were being heard and that at least some of their ideas would be considered in the final decisions. Unfortunately, none of their ideas were included in the DNR’s proposal.

What can you do to help? If we are to stop this change from going through and also make the DNR accountable for any additional changes that it is attempting to pass through the legislative process, it is critical that you and association members:

1. Write or e-mail Steve Enger at the Department of Natural Resources, 500 Lafayette Road, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155-4025 or steve.enger@state.mn.us commenting on these rules and also ask for a hearing on the remaining amendments.

2. Write, call, or e-mail your representatives regarding this fee increase and the additional amendments that have not even been written yet. This proposed fee increase did not meet the required number of days that it needed to be before the legislature in 2009 so it must fulfill the remaining 12 days in 2010.

It is still possible to stop this change if our legislatures vote against it. Your state senator and representative can be found under the legislation tab on the Minnesotans for Healthy Lakes homepage www.mnhealthylakes.org

3. Write, phone or e-mail Governor Pawlenty asking him not to sign this bill if it reaches his desk next spring. His contact numbers are: (651) 296-3391, 800-657-3717, fax (651) 296-2089 and e-mail: tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us.

Congressman said what majority think

From: Joan Neururer, Waverly

Wednesday evening, Sept. 9 was a very historic night. What a speech, we now know everything we need to know about health care reform – or do we?

You have to give it to the man; President Obama sure knows how to read a speech off the teleprompter. The night was historic, however, because a congressman dared to say what a majority of the Americans were thinking. “Liar.”

President Obama is a prevaricator of the worst sort. There is some truth in what he says. However, when push comes to shove, the end point is untrue.

True, there is no provision in the health care bill to fund abortions. However, there is a commission to decide which procedures will be covered. Since amendments to exclude abortion have been voted down, the very liberal commission (to be appointed by the most pro-abortion senator, now our president) will undoubtedly authorize payment for abortions.

True, there is no provision in the health care bill to fund illegal immigrants. However the very liberal congress has failed to pass amendments to require proof of citizenship as a requirement for coverage. Illegal immigrants will be covered.

True, there is no provision in the health care bill for a “death panel.” In the bill it’s called the Health Care Commission. This commission will not only decide which procedures will be covered but who is worthy of coverage.

Health Advisor Emanuel has written extensively on the worthiness of segments of the population for health care coverage. He is a big proponent of euthanasia. His theory is that only those with usefulness to the state deserve health care treatments. Will this man, the brother of Rahm Emanuel, have much influence over the Health Care Commission? An educated guess is that he will head the commission.

President Obama said the Republicans have no ideas for health care reform. While he was reading this, bills and amendments were being waved in the air by Republican congresspersons. It is ironic that our president thinks he can continually push for bi-partisan legislation and turn his back on any input from Republicans.

Our president says our health care system is broken. The broken portion is goverment-run, Medicare and Medicaid. Otherwise we have the best health care system in the world.

It’s hard to believe anything the president reads.

What can we do? We do need some health care reform, but we do not need a major overhaul of the system. We do need to lower health care costs. We need to get rid of the high costs of government mandates to insurance companies. We need tort reform and a stop to frivolous law suites. Most of all, we need to get the government out of our health care system. Government mandates to the American automobile companies led to their destruction. Government mandates to the housing industry led to the collapse of lending institutions. Do we want the government and government mandates to destroy our health care system, too?

Concept entrenched in bill’s DNA

From: Nathan Unseth, Lester Prairie

To last week’s writer who scoffed at the concept of “death panels” in the federal health care bill: Read the bill again. Slowly.

Nobody claims that the term “death panel” exists anywhere in the bill. But the concept is entrenched in the bill’s DNA.

If the bugaboo were merely end-of-life counseling, that would be cause for mild worry. But the matter is far more sinister than that, because the bill grants the executive branch (the president) access to your health care records, your health insurance policy, your bank accounts, and your tax returns.

Even worse, the bill grants an unelected commissioner (appointed by the president) unlimited control over the insurance industry. This commissioner will set up the rules by which insurance companies are to “compete” with a federal insurance option. This will guarantee that the insurance industry folds. Then the public “option” will be forced upon all of us, and we will be at the mercy of bureaucrats for our health care.

The bill authorizes the government to determine “best practices,” which will then be imposed on you and your doctor. Not the best practice in your doctor’s view, but the best practice that fits your computerized “profile.”

Eventually the money to fund this monstrous health care program will be gone. As everything else the federal government has launched (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac), health care “reform” will eventually go broke. When the money has dried up, “best practices” will be used to save money. We call it rationing.

One of President Obama’s chief health care advisors, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, has long advocated the rationing of health care. Writing in the Hastings Report in 1996, he asserts that the disabled and severely ill who can no longer be “participating citizens” should not receive health care. That is the equivalent of a “death panel.” And he has the president’s ear.

Think about it: How is it possible to pull $500 billion from Medicare and maintain the quantity and quality of care (as promised by President Obama)? It is absurd. It is a lie.

And when the trillions of dollars have been squandered, the government will announce that your mother with Alzheimer’s is ineligible for care.

Tell your senators and representatives to abandon the health care bill. It will kill freedom. It will kill the economy. And it may kill your mother.