Reporting should include Congress' past tendencies
It is easy for me and hundreds of thousands of others to empathize with the plight of the 9/11 first responders who went to Congress to plead their case for continued disability funding.
But, the media needs to do a better job in their reporting about when a group such groups appear before the Congress by pointing out that the Congress has a decades-long history of making such promises and later reneging.
The 9/11 first responders will just have to join the line of the others who have been promised benefits by Congress in the days of patriotic fervor or national distress over a specific condition.
First, are the military veterans who accepted low active-duty pay in exchange for a promise of free lifetime health care for the veteran and spouse. Next, are the spouses of veterans who died of service-connected disabilities who have had their Survivor's Benefit Annuity (which the veterans paid for out of their retirement pay) reduced to almost nothing because the VA pays them DIC (Dependent Indemnity Compensation) which by law is an additive compensation, not an offset to other compensation. Then, are the coal miners with black lung disease.
There are others but this short list is sufficient to prove that the Congress easily makes promises it will break in the future.
Most of all the media need to do a better job of reporting that Congress has a long history of making promises that they later break.
Robert M. Anderson
U.S. Army (retired)
Centerton
Hey, VP Biden, how about curing heart disease, too?
We have all heard about Vice President Joe Biden saying he is going to cure cancer if he is elected. I saw the political cartoon in Friday's Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette which said he was going to cure cancer if elected.
May I remind him and the public that heart disease is the leading cause of death in America, accounting for one out of four deaths in America. Mr. Vice President, If you have the magic to cure cancer perhaps you can sprinkle some of your fairy dust and cure those of us who have heart disease. We would be appreciative for you doing so. I will be listening to the news for your statement. You had better commit yourself before one of your opponents beats you to declaring that they will do it.
Murl Douglas Pilcher
Fayetteville
Before packing up that truck for Arkansas ...
Will someboby -- anybody! -- please offer Sarah a job in Washington?
Edward Martin
Rogers
Editorial on 06/18/2019