Speak Out 8/25/11

Perry's book

IN his book, "Fed Up!", Gov. Rick Perry vehemently declared Social Security and Medicare to be unconstitutional. Watch him closely as he, in political terms, walks this back.

Not saving

I completely agree with the Speak Out contributor who called out old people for not saving for themselves. It's their generation that made the decision to spend the Social Security Trust Fund anyway. Why should the rest of us have to put in money for them to retire when they didn't save at a time when they could have been?

Not our fault

TO the 20-year-old who wrote into Speak Out about Social Security: You're not paying in for us elderly. We paid our Social Security in years ago. What you pay in now should be yours years from now. What the government does is not the elderly's fault. We've paid our share. The people in the White House misused it. It wasn't theirs to spend, and neither is it yours.

Mooching off taxpayers

WHY can't the government officials understand there needs to be a limit on how many babies these single mothers can collect money for? Anyone can make a mistake, but stop paying after two. That would probably take care of a lot of problems with people living together, not married, mooching off the taxpayers.

Welfare program

KUDOS for Mark Lanzotti and John Voss. I agree totally with them. We should not set up another welfare program to administer funds to supplement sewer bills. If there's a surplus of funds collected by our sewer bills, reduce the sewer bills for everyone. Don't set up a program to administer and pay somebody to fool with it. If we've raised too much money, give it back to the people instead of giving it to the city council to fool around with.

For the money

IN response to the GOP candidates and about them being in it only for the money, you must be crazy. Dan Rather made $6 million a year, and he is a Democrat. The Democrats are in it for the money also, not just the Republicans.

Dress code

JACKSON school administrators, are you really going to quibble about the difference in pants that are one inch above the kneecap as opposed to one inch below? How demoralizing for teachers. A teacher can wear a skirt that is well above the knee, but not pants. Are you going to spend precious time policing this issue?

Barking dogs

TO a house on Georgia Street in Jackson: I don't mind listening to your barking dog all day, I can tune that out. But at 1 a.m. and then again at 4:30 a.m. I have to start complaining. A lot of the people in the neighborhood work and need their sleep. Please keep your dogs quiet at night.

Libya outrage?

WHATEVER happened to the SEMO Coalition for Peace and Justice? Why are they not out at Liberty Corner waving get out of Libya signs every night? Maybe they are confirming my suspicions that they were more about disliking Bush than caring about peace and justice.

Government duplicity

WHEN it comes to cutting waste and saving the country, maybe even having enough money to balance the budget, why not get rid of the duplicity in government? For instance, we have the FBI, CIA, ATF, DEA and who knows how many other acronyms I'm forgetting, and still others we're not supposed to know about. It's not just law enforcement either. Everything from education to health care is covered by so many government entities it's impossible to keep track. If a business was run this way it would be broke.

Capaha Pond

I live on Perry Avenue and don't travel on Broadway much because of the congestion, but I just did and saw Capaha Pond from the road and it's really an embarrassment. People coming in from out of town see that. It really looks trashy. It shows that we don't care at all what we look like to other people. And this is supposed to be the biggest town between St. Louis and Memphis? It can't cost too much money to get that tended to, get it cleaned up.

Welfare reform

IF there are 14- and 15-year-old girls who are getting pregnant and going to the welfare office, why aren't the boyfriends or the person that fathered the child being prosecuted for statutory rape? I believe in order for the woman to get a check, she has to name who the boyfriend is.

Flood plain

I think that the people who live in the flood plain that was flooded because of the levee being blown up need to stop complaining. They purchased their land for less than everybody else because they were in a flood plain. The reason they couldn't get insurance is because they were in a flood plain. Nobody should give them handouts because something happened that was expected to take place.

Senate failure

THE failure of the Missouri Senate to follow the lead of the House and approve a bill requiring a doctor's prescription for pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in meth, exemplifies spinelessness of the highest order and pathetic victory for Big Pharma and its pawns inside and outside the state Senate.

Political dysfunction

WHAT will it take? A Rasmussen Poll, USA Today and Standard & Poor's all agree, our political machinery is dysfunctional. President Obama said the same thing during his bus tour. If you agree that our political machinery is dysfunctional, why would you align yourself with any of the parties? What have they done for you? An overwhelming majority also agree that the career politicians are the root cause for the housing crisis, the bailout and our bankrupt country. Why shouldn't we vote?

Tax breaks

THE rich have tax breaks so they can give us jobs. Where are the jobs? They have had plenty of time. How can they take away Social Security when we paid into it with our own money? Leave it alone and pay back money they took from the fund in the beginning. Members of Congress should be working on problems in Washington and not working for their own profit.

Texan comment

TO the person in Speak Out making the comment about Rick Perry as a Texan, the other Texan may not have been great, but he was a whole heck of a lot better than who we have now.

Cardinals team

THIS pertains to the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. They've got a bunch of AAA players on there, and Pujols is the only one that ever tries to do anything. The rest of them don't know what to do.

Help yourself

NO more help unless you are disabled or at an age when your body can't work. No more help. There is always a way to help yourself.

Writing tickets

IF police officers don't want to write tickets and do the paperwork, the number of officers doesn't matter. I drive from Jackson to Cape Girardeau twice a day and I could write five tickets each trip.

Sewer tax

The people complaining about sewer tax, if they can play bingo every night, have a cellphone and smoke cigarettes, they can afford the sewer tax.

Canadian buses

OBAMA is creating jobs. The two buses the government paid $2.2 million for the three day tour were actually made in Canada. This is his idea of responsible spending and job creation.