Letters to the Editor

Arleigh Kerr wrote, "Wal-Mart doesn't cost the taxpayers a dime. It's politicians in Olympia who are taxing me and you to pay for someone else's doctor bills" (Monday letter).

What do you think happens when an employee with no insurance gets sick? Pneumonia, cancer, heart disease and broken bones don't go away just because we can't afford a doctor; they get worse. The patient has no choice but to go to a community clinic, which taxpayers pay for. If the clinic can't deal with it, he ends up at an emergency room, the most expensive form of care. The hospital passes the cost on to people who can pay, and our health insurance premiums go up.

If the employee can't pay, the hospital may force him into bankruptcy. Medical bills are the largest cause of personal bankruptcies in America. The employee's family is ruined financially and all the bloated costs are passed on to you and me.

So big corporations that don't offer health insurance certainly cost us. If we don't pass the Fair Share law, every big business could dump its low-income workers' health costs on the public.

Chris Burks
Mill Creek

Give me one reason why taxpayers should shell out

Why should other employers, other employees and the taxpayers of this state pay for the health benefits of employers such as Wal-Mart? Just one reason, please.

Bob Crittenden
Seattle

It's states and people up against the feds

Wal-Mart is bilking the state of Washington by not making health insurance affordable to its employees and forcing them on state health care rolls. Ford Motor Co. closes 14 plants and lays off more than 30,000 workers. Let's not forget about the Enron price-gouging for electricity, the current gas-price manipulations, the illegal war in Iraq, torture, domestic spying, exposing CIA operatives as payback, the Hurricane Katrina debacle -- the hits just keep on coming.

A pattern is developing that has the federal government pitted against states and individuals. The state Legislature should not only take these issues head-on by passing the "Wal-Mart" bill and bills that protect consumers such as the "Payday Lender" reform legislation, but should go further and follow the lead of Portland and demand the governor withdraw from the Joint Terrorism Task Force and issue a proclamation condemning the Bush administration as an absolute failure.

The state of Washington must take a stand, nationally, so that other states will follow our lead and we can begin to turn the tide against the "all-powerful executive."

Anthony Vicari
Everett

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

Our representatives need a lesson in ethics

Who pays the salary of the members of Congress? Is it an offshore conglomerate? Are they private contractors we've hired to do our business? No, they are elected and are employees of the federal government. Why then are they not subject to the ethics requirements as are other employees?

Members of the military, active and reserve, along with federal civilian counterparts, must attend mandatory ethics training. In that, we are advised the limits of gift and meals we can accept from superiors, give to superiors and accept from outside sources. Why are our friends in Congress allowed to conduct themselves differently?

I challenge anyone running for Congress: Take a pledge to conduct yourself as you've required federal employees do. Pledge to live within the limits set for other employees and focus on the needs of your constituents, not those on K Street.

Jeff Hall
Renton

ENRON

Do Lay, Skilling still think they're the smartest?

Having recently viewed "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," Alex Gibney's 2005 documentary based on the best-selling book by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, I have but one question to ask.

Do Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling still feel like "the smartest guys in the room"?

Seems to me that Enron Corp., a mere facade of future growth, was no more than a grandiose marketing strategy based on the pompous principles of a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme. A morally corrupt philosophy, at best, ironically similar to that sweetly sung "State of the Union" address.

Perhaps we should pay heed to their arrogance and consider the dire consequences of our society's need for immediate gratification. To Lay, Skilling and the like, I say apologize and start singing the jailhouse blues.

Stephanie Shimwell
Seattle

TEACHERS

School Board very much involved in union flap

Regarding "School Board stays out of union flap" (Feb. 2), a public employee contract is between the union and the public board of directors. It is illogical for the Seattle School Board to tell teachers that the changes made to their contract, after they voted, is a matter between them and their union. The School Board votes on the contract and shares the printing, so who else is responsible if changes were made between the time they voted and when the collective bargaining agreement was published?

As a teacher pointed out, the changes benefited management so that may best explain their motivation to mislabel the issue. Equally obvious is that the union is not working for the members' best interests, claiming substantive changes were simple editing and unlikely to be used (so why did they insert them?).

One secret clause will cost teachers $10,000 in pay should the levy fail while another removes 40 percent pay from the workers' compensation benefit. Can anyone with integrity call this good faith bargaining?

Robert Femiano
Seattle

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

Federal government turns its back on people in need

I have read many articles about this mess of a Medicare prescription drug program with the problems people are having getting signed up, problems getting a company that has their prescribed drugs and the financial strain it is causing people with limited financial resources even at $1 to $3 per prescription.

What has not been reported to any extent is what is going to happen in three, six, nine months down the road when people reach the $2,250 limit. This is the total of the real value of the drugs a person is taking, not the co-pay amount. When $2,250 is reached, that's it, there is no more financial help until they spend $2,750 out of their pockets to reach $5,000. After that, more help kicks in.

What are people to do when even $1 and $3 co-pays create a financial hardship? Where are they to get the resources to pay full price for their prescriptions?

My mother will reach this limit about September, so our family is scrambling to figure out how to get the money together to finance the rest of the year's worth of prescriptions.

This is not a "what if?" or a "maybe." This problem is just at the horizon. There are going to be thousands of elderly and ill people who are least able to fend for themselves and who are not going to be able to afford to pay for their medicines.

The Bush administration has decided people are on their own. I hope that is not going to be the response of the rest of society or of local governments.

Tom Repass
Wenatchee

THE SONICS

Fan disagrees with Olympia's decision

The Sonics ownership and management are (largely) a class act -- and are locally centered. Good things. The team struggles more than not, but that happens to every franchise. The Sonics carry the name of our city across the nation and, as we have seen with Hawks mania, sport adds richness to our civic lives. However, the Sonics' "plight" comes at a bad time for me.

I've just read about my share (and my children's shares) of the increasing national debt; I'll have to contribute more to charities since public funding is dropping like a stone; education (a huge societal and economic need) is strangling for lack of funds, so I expect more taxes there, and I'll vote for them; student loans are cut, as are many programs for those marginalized and struggling and the list goes on.

I'm feeling burdened and weary and there is no more in my pocket for basketball.

Dan Caine
Seattle

CORRECTION

The Jan. 30 letter from Keith Gormezano about student loans should have read:

I recently helped a senior such as James Lockhart who also had student loans from attending the UW in the 1980s, living in public housing, in poor cardiovascular health and on food stamps, get his student loans discharged on the basis of disability. He was ecstatic. (Actually, any single person who makes less than $1,037 per month is eligible for food stamps, even if he or she owns a house free and clear, a new car or significant savings or retirement accounts.)

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