Well, the House barely passed its 1,990-page monstrosity health care bill. This is ridiculous! Hopefully some common sense will return as the Senate begins its debate on this vitally important issue.
After seeing the 12-inch stack of paper that made up the House bill, it is now obvious that it was really the staffers and lawyers that wrote this bill, not our elected representatives.
How could they vote for something so long and complex that they probably did not have time to read it all, much less understand the possible ramifications of its many parts?
Health care needs to be changed, but Congress should try to develop legislation in a general form and then let the free market work out the details.
There are 1,300 private health care companies in this country. Congress should set the broad guidelines needed to insure health coverage for all Americans, remove the other government regulations letting these companies compete across state lines, and get out of the way!
Let us hope that the Senate will mirror this process. This is a far better course of action than to allow a 1,990-page bill that we are to trust was written by people so brilliant that it will properly cover every eventuality.
J.E. SHULER
Durham
Crying wolf
With an auto liability insurance policy up for renewal, I decided to comparison shop. Quotations from eight major companies for identical coverage for a year for my car varied from $618 to $1,160. The more important finding, though, was that the higher quotes tended to come from firms that frequently advertise that one saves money by insuring with them.
Exodus 20:16 says something about false witness, but most of us know that advertisers believe they are exempt. There are more grievous offenders.
I note the many things that prominent Republican spokespersons have recently said -- viz, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's statement that her "news conference" on the Capitol steps attracted a million people, which was in sharp contradiction from what the TV coverage showed.
Even more despicable are such lies as stating that the public option portion in the proposed health legislation involves government death panels.
I consider myself an independent, but admit that I have come to doubt anything most Republican and some Democrat politicians say.
Ethical considerations aside -- there is a popular fable about the little boy who cried wolf. I wonder if the offending politicians will ever recognize this.
JUNIUS A. DAVIS
Chapel Hill
