LETTERS

Not representing us

I am 51 years old and vote in every election. Tom Cotton is not representing me. We sent him to Congress to cut waste and fraud first, then cut spending in a rational way.

I have been unemployed for four months and have not had health insurance for almost three years now. I pay out-of-pocket for my doctor visits and prescriptions. I have never drawn a single dime from the government in my life.

I believed in the Tea Party when cutting wasteful spending was its theme. Now, the Tea Party has moved to be the moral and medical police. What the heck happened?

My deceased mother, who was 87 years old when she passed away in 2012, had massive health issues for the last nine years of her life. Her physician prescribed a home nebulizer during the last three years of her life; the machine was nearly 15 years old, and the government was charged $700 per month for the machine.

Cotton should stop these outrageous charges from Medicare and Medicaid first, stop representing the 1 percent and focus on the needs of his district. He should go after the insurance companies, medical-device companies and hospitals making millions in profit before he cuts money out of Social Security and Medicare entitlements.

It’s corporate welfare abuse as I mentioned above, not individual misuse, that is the larger problem. I will be watching to see which problem Tom Cotton attempts to eliminate first.

STEVE HOOVER Sheridan

Actions belie labels

Now we learn that the House Republicans have voted to approve massive cuts to food-security programs affecting millions of Americans and to defund “Obamacare.” These programs may indeed have significant flaws, but these actions appear to be driven mainly by a cold-hearted, reptilian mean-spiritedness and desire to shame the president.

There are many aspects of Barack Obama’s agenda that I wish could be done differently, but as a voter and American, I applaud the impulse to provide some basic shelters from the economic storms that have ripped our nation to shreds over the past few years, and to move in the direction of truly constructive action.

These are the same legislators who would never question military funding for Israel, a nation armed to the teeth with one of the most prosperous economies on the planet; and Egypt, a country that has moved once again in the direction of severe authoritarian repression. Nor would they question investing billions in new weapons programs that will become the tools of unleashing new American imperialist death and terror on a world that hungers for a new way of doing things.

How many of these legislators believe they have the right to call themselves Christians? What are they learning in their churches and Bible study? Do their priorities show any Christian care for the least among us or the courage of heart to turn swords into plowshares?

MARK AQUILANO Fayetteville

A disgusting situation

Re the letter about trashy fishermen: This person’s letter sounds a bit like Beaver Lake in Benton County (if I didn’t know any better).

I’ve picked up at least 60 baby diapers while fishing this year on Beaver Lake. Of course, the beer bottles and cans are four or five times more common, I’d say.

Anyway, thanks for trying, William G. Carlyle. I feel your disgust about the situation.

RANDAL R. GOODWIN Rogers

Valuable civics lesson

According to some members of Congress, the American people have spoken, they have listened, and they will withhold funding from the Affordable Care Act, even if it means shutting down the federal government.

When was that referendum? I thought the last legal action was that the people had spoken through their representatives by making the Affordable Care Act law. How can a representative, in good conscience, fail to fund a law? Can I withhold funding from the government because of a law I disagree with? Of course not, so how are they different? Oh, wait, I was wrong, the last legal action was court decisions upholding the law. So these members of Congress have voted to defund a law that has passed all three branches of our government.

Should we thank these members of Congress for showing us how government should really work? We are taught that this is a nation of laws; above all else, it is the rule of law that sets us apart. If you don’t like the law, change it, don’t disobey it. What they appear to really want is a nation of “do what I say and nobody gets hurt.” So it would seem that children can learn a most valuable civics lesson on the school playground. The problem is that even if the bully doesn’t get his way, he has lost the respect of those bullied.

If Congress is going to behave like a Third World government, at least it should show enough respect to not do it halfway. I expect my Third World government to include screaming matches, hair-pulling, chair-throwing, and wrestling in the aisles. Congress owes us that much.

CECIL WOODWARD Fayetteville

Destroying economy

I am a lifelong Republican and I have had it with the Tea Party.

Are they crazy? Yes.

Threatening the debt limit is madness. For decades the bedrock of the global financial system has been the safety of United States Treasury bills. If confidence in them is shaken, who knows how long it would take for us to regain it-assuming we ever could?

Light travels 6 trillion miles in a year. The national debt is almost three times that amount, so if we detonate close to 17 trillion bucks’ worth, God help us.

I believe President Barack Obama is right in refusing to negotiate a debt-limit increase with strings attached. I wish Congress would just get rid of the thing-either that or raise it to something like $50 trillion so it wouldn’t be an issue for a while.

I think Speaker John Boehner should stop caving in to the extreme wing of his caucus and get something done before he goes down in history as the person who destroyed the economy.

MIKE WERKMAN Hot Springs Village

Living a life of regret

Madam Shoffner, it’s five months and counting. Any regrets about not taking the plea deal?

NEALUS WHEELER Mountain Home