Letters on Cal Thomas, liberals, Medicaid expansion, national debt

Typical nay-saying from Cal Thomas

As usual, columnist Cal Thomas supported Donald Trump and made light of anything that has to do with either Barack or Michelle Obama (“Obamas failed to offer real hope,” Dec. 21 Opinion). He rebutted a statement Michelle Obama made to Oprah Winfrey about how “we are feeling what not having hope feels like.”

Thomas cited a recent Quinnipiac University poll that found that 59 percent of voters are “optimistic about the next four years with Donald Trump as president.” That poll was taken between Nov. 17 and 20. A Wall Street Journal headline on Dec. 15 read, “Few Americans optimistic about Trump’s performance in White House, poll finds.”

President Obama has been thwarted on every issue for most of his two terms. Soon after Obama was elected, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged to make Obama “a one-term president.” While he failed to achieve that goal, he and his fellow Republicans were able to block most of Obama’s proposals that would have given many Americans the hope he had promised.

The blame for any failure on the part of Obama rests heavily on the shoulders of McConnell and the GOP Congress, not to mention naysayers like Thomas.

Witless soldiers

In just a few short years, the liberals lost control of the U.S. House, the Senate and the White House, and lost hundreds of seats on state legislators. Their pathetic plot to coerce the Electoral College resulted in Hillary Clinton losing even more faithless electors than Donald Trump. Now they’re contemplating impeachment. Good luck there.

I hope all this self-righteous indignation will fade before the Democrat Party becomes completely irrelevant. Then again, onward witless soldiers.

Thanks a lot

Thanks once again to Gov. Sam Brownback for the lack of insurance coverage for the people of Kansas.

My daughter was covered under the Affordable Care Act for 2016. Because our state governing body chose not to expand KanCare, her insurance coverage jumped from $18.34 per month to $284 per month. She is lucky though, as she won't have to pay the fine for not having insurance coverage.

She recently lost her job due to a medical issue, but it looks as if she is not eligible for KanCare. Thanks so much to our governor and Kansas politics.

How to reduce debt

In this election cycle, we had a lot of discussion about the growing national debt. There are only two ways to reduce the debt: cut spending and/or raise taxes.

Cutting government spending pulls money out of the economy. The bulk of cuts come from eliminating employees. Without private sector jobs waiting for those people, they are removed from supporting the economy.

If government spending is cut by $400 billion, that amount of money is removed from the economic stream that supports the U.S. economy. There’s a multiplier effect when jobs are eliminated. The newly unemployed spend less, which causes those they would have spent money with to reduce their employment. This would logically produce negative growth or (more likely) a recessionary period.

The other way to reduce the rate of national debt growth is to raise taxes. It’s a hard choice. Raising taxes is unpopular. Starting a potential recession is unpopular.

Next year, the government in Washington, D.C., is a one-party government. They can resolve the issue they have raised if they have the fortitude to do that.

Gift of laughter

Thanks, Eagle, for giving me the gift of laughter (“Who keeps downtown decorations up to date?” Dec. 22 Eagle).

I enjoyed remembering Opal Wetzel’s heroic efforts to bring holiday cheer to a drab and forgotten downtown and wondering who now does the work. We all know anytime you turn anything over to government, local or otherwise, it becomes snared in the web of “not my job,” while the buck gets passed from department to department.

Maybe the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce can take over the task. It would blend right in with its Synergy campaign. After all, with its large membership of business owners, all it has to do is pick up the phone and ask an electrician to make repairs and it gets done. The chamber has plenty of members who could write off the space it would take to warehouse the decorations the other 11 months of the year. And it can count on hundreds of volunteers to put them up and take them down.

I also want to thank The Eagle for the wonderful story about Julie Dombo getting her new electronic hands (Dec. 21 Eagle). Mark Holden and his family did what Blue Cross Blue Shield should have done. The Holden family gave us all a good reminder that each of us can make a difference in the lives of those around us. And Dombo has shown us all what faith and determination can manifest.

This story was originally published December 28, 2016 at 5:03 AM with the headline "Letters on Cal Thomas, liberals, Medicaid expansion, national debt."