OpinionFebruary 18, 2005
Speak Out 2/18/05
Keep the cap on; Closer to Orwell; Better advice; Dress modestly; Co-pay for Medicaid; Too much power
Keep the cap on
I READ a recent comment about the Republicans' dirty little secret, saying we can take away the $90,000 cap on Social Security taxes. Currently, a worker pays 7.65 percent for Social Security and Medicare, and the employer must match this amount, making a total of 15.3 percent, or $13,770 a year on $90,000. The United States currently has the second highest business tax rate on Earth. Other governments have lowered taxes on businesses. Our corporations, big and small, are constantly attacked by greedy trial lawyers, poorly conceived worker's compensation laws and over-regulation of daily activities. These circumstances and many others force our corporations to move overseas to remain solvent. I am very familiar with an individual who entered the workforce at $7 an hour 16 years ago. By working 12 to 15 hours a day and constant skill upgrading, that person earned closed to $200,000 last year. More people are working as a result. In addition to very high taxes, he is paying an alternative minimum tax. In his case, his Social Security and Medicare taxes would be $30,600 a year without the cap.
Closer to Orwell
BY VOTING for House Resolution 418 supporting a national identification card, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson has helped bring us closer to an Orwellian world. Soon we'll be able to be tracked where ever we go. I am a freedom-loving conservative who is tired of these neoconservative tyrants turning this country into a giant prison, all in the name of fighting terrorism. Isn't it the goal of terrorists to destroy everything this country stands for? It seems our own elected officials are doing it for them.
Better advice
RATHER THAN suggest pro-lifers adopt unwanted children, suggest that women not get pregnant until they are mature enough and unselfish enough to rear those children. That seems to be an easier answer to the problem of children not being wanted.
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Dress modestly
PLEASE GIVE thought to how you dress your girls. You may think it's cute and fashionable for your young girls to wear mini-skirts and low-ride jeans and look like little models. Why do you want your children dressing in clothes that proclaim, "I am available." There are plenty of clothes that are cute yet modest.
Co-pay for Medicaid
WATCH HOW many parents go to emergency rooms with children who have simple colds. Medicaid patients should be required to make co-payments for emergency-room visits. That would cut down on some of the abuse but wouldn't be prohibitive enough to keep them from going when necessary. I am on Medicaid with an income way below poverty level, but I'm so thrilled to have needed medical care that I would do without a few groceries in order to make a co-payment.
Too much power
THE PROBLEM isn't subsidies to farmers. It's the extremely powerful agricultural corporations that set the prices and squeeze small farmers out of business. They have way too much power and are virtual monopolies.
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