Letters on Iran deal, public health cuts, pension scheme, animal cruelty, arena noise

Iran deal provides aid to the enemy

Rekha Basu’s commentary was filled with false hope and ignored facts concerning Iran (“Iran deal a lesson in diplomacy,” July 27 Opinion). You would think she were a member of Congress.

Congress allowed the Obama administration to negotiate an arms agreement and not an arms treaty with Iran – an enemy that vows America’s destruction regardless of the agreement. Soon after the agreement was reached, the United Nations Security Council voted to internationally implement the agreement, without caring if Congress wants the agreement rejected.

Not only will sanctions, resolutions and common sense be dropped by the international community, but we will end up financing terrorism with $150 billion in released money, aid in building an intercontinental ballistic missile system, and further development of Iran’s nuclear war capability. China is making a deal to build two additional nuclear reactors for Iran. There is no requirement for the plutonium reactor in northern Iran to cease operation. Our allies are busy getting contracts to do business with Iran, which will strengthen Iran without any change in its desire for war and terrorism.

Could we give any more aid and comfort to the enemy Iran than President Obama has? There is only one question left for Congress from the American people. It is best expressed by Shakespeare in the play about Julius Caesar at his assassination: “You too, Brutus?”

Restore health cuts

The Sedgwick County Commission is responsible for using our taxes in the best possible way. That is not an easy task, and it requires a lot of thought by the commissioners. Currently, they are considering cutting the public health budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some estimates project that for every $1 spent for public health, $5.60 is saved in medical expenses. These expenses usually fall on those least able to pay and are passed on to the taxpayers by raising taxes – with the added risk of increased diseases such as measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, polio and influenza. How is cutting these funds a good and responsible use of our taxes?

I hope the commissioners will restore the much-needed funding to the Sedgwick County Health Department.

Pension scheme

Defined-benefit pension plans for publicly paid employees are a pyramid scheme that taxpayers pay. They promise to pay employees from 50 to 100 percent of their end-of-employment average annual wage for the rest of their lives, once retired.

But the fiction is heavily based on two factors: assumed/projected annual future earnings rates and always increasing participant numbers. When either or both assumptions prove wrong, there is massive underfunding. Never do they project up-and-down rates or employment over time. Either they perform miracles with earnings or increase the numbers of those entering the plan, or it can’t meet its promises. It’s a shell game, a pyramid scheme.

The other plan they don’t want is a defined-contribution plan. Its retirement benefits equal what you put in plus what the employer puts in, plus or minus what those amounts earn or lose over the years. There is no set retirement pay, just a realistic “bank account” you get to draw on, retirement paycheck unknown. These can never offer to pay you a set paycheck near or equal to your last few years’ average earnings. The math just doesn’t work.

It’s time to get real. We are all on the hook for this foolishness.

Sickening cruelty

Another disgusting excuse for a human inflicts horrible, abusive pain upon an innocent being (“Police connect shooting suspect to cat cruelty case,” July 28 Eagle). Why did some local TV outlets have to show even a screenshot of the sickening video? If the victim were a child instead of a kitten, they most certainly would not show anything but a photo of the child when healthy, certainly not the ravaged body once the child had been thrown against a wall.

For those of us who are compassionate, just reporting that some deranged individual is accused of animal cruelty against a kitten is plenty, thank you. We neither want to see the evidence nor hear more about it. As for those in our society who lack compassion: They do not need to see or hear about it.

TV stations need to quit trying to beat one another by showing these kinds of horrors.

Post noise warning

Protect taxpayers from class-action lawsuits. Sedgwick County commissioners should post a large sign at the entrance to Intrust Bank Arena warning: “Loud sound in this venue can cause permanent damage to your hearing.”

Seek the advice of experts about this. Study the excellent information in “All too easy to do a lifetime of damage to your hearing” (July 28 Healthy Living).

This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Letters on Iran deal, public health cuts, pension scheme, animal cruelty, arena noise."