Check for mold before school starts
Regarding the Sept. 6 story, “Mold closes two schools, classrooms”: I would like to know why schools are not checked for mold before school starts. They wait until school begins to find mold and then disrupt classes and students.
DOTTIE HANLON Egg Harbor Township
Cut foreign aid; address CEO salaries
The United States should cut out all foreign aid and use this money to reduce the national debt. Paying down this debt means the government pays less interest, which means more money is available for other problems in this country.
Not one of these countries we send aid to has improved its way of running its country. There is no incentive to change as long as they are getting billions of dollars for nothing. They do not like us, and they never will.
On employment, the government should approach the boards of directors of all public companies and offer to reduce their federal tax. In return, the companies must reduce the salaries paid to CEOs and top management to a reasonable amount. A good figure would be $500,000 maximum. If they can’t live on that, they can look for another job. By cutting salaries to a reasonable amount, the companies could put millions of dollars back into the company, which could be used to bring back jobs from outside the U.S.
On terrorism, if the United States, Russia, China and any other country that makes weapons would stop allowing these weapons to leave their countries, the terrorists would soon run out of them. Then what would they use?
Sometimes politicians think that solving problems has to be complicated. But more taxes and regulation do not always work.
RICHARD WOOD Absecon
Don’t let Republicans decimate Medicare
After retiring from a 40-year career administering programs for senior citizens, Iamappalled by the proposal of the Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan team to restructure Medicare into a voucher system.
Medicare is good. Medicare is necessary. Medicare has a more successful history of controlling health care costs than the health care industry in general, with cost increases in Medicare consistently less than the annual increases in the cost of health care. Some points to consider: President Barack Obama did not raid $716 billion from Medicare. He plans to save $716 billion in Medicare costs. The Affordable Care Act will do this by reducing reimbursements to providers and insurance companies, not by reducing benefits.
These savings come at a time when overpayments have been a subject of discussion for years. The president would use these savings to eliminate the infamous doughnut hole in the Medicare prescription program. That is good for people who need relief from the high cost of prescription drugs. Saying that Obama took $716 billion from Medicare is a bald-faced lie. Since when are cost savings considered stealing? Medicare is healthier and more solvent as a result of that $716 billion cost savings. Its solvency will be extended to the year 2023, eight years longer than without these savings.
A voucher system would eliminate the essential coverage provided by Medicare to seniors and the disabled. If Romney and Ryan win, they will decimate one of the most successful paybacks that the American people receive from their tax dollars — Medicare. Our children and grandchildren do not deserve to have significantly less than we current retirees, who have never been without the protection of Medicare.
MISONO MILLER Millville
Misono Miller is a former executive director of the Cumberland County Office on Aging and the Disabled.
Affordable Care Act isn’t so affordable
Regarding the Sept. 7 letter, “Like Hurricane Isaac, GOP is full of hot air”: First, President Barack Obama does plan to take $716 billion out of Medicare. The money is “savings” that will be generated by paying less to providers, which will mean fewer providers taking Medicare.
The Affordable Care Act is a misnomer. It does nothing to make care affordable. It has some good points — coverage for pre-existing conditions and preventive care, and having your child on your insurance until age 26— but the rest is a tax increase on everything and everyone.
ROBERT F. THOMAS Galloway Township
