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Armed with facts
A Nov. 25 letter writer stretched the truth considerably by stating that an "overwhelming majority" of people want the public option to be included in the healthcare bill. I would ask that those whose minds are not already made up go to the Internet and search for "public option polls healthcare."There you will find a number of polls, all of which give the truth: The public is divided by more than 10 percent against the public option. Even the ultraliberal CBS News was reporting this fact. The latest Rasmussen poll shows 56 percent against the public option and only 38 percent in favor. Please arm yourselves with facts, not opinions (including mine). — Winston Barney, Fort Worth Many voices are calling for a public choice with regard to a national health plan, insisting it would be nonprofit and somehow better if the government was in charge as opposed to for-profit insurance companies. Last week, the Star-Telegram had a story that said the government lost $47 billion to fraud, waste and abuse within Medicare just last year. I don’t know all the answers, but certainly if the government can mismanage that amount in one program in one year, just imagine the gross amount of increased fraud, waste and abuse if government were in charge of running anything that resembled national healthcare. — Michael E. Holland, Fort Worth Campaign rhetoricSen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry amaze me with their campaign statements about the federal government. Hutchison enjoys the greatest government healthcare in America and will have it for her lifetime, and all senior citizens enjoy the benefits of Medicare, which are two government programs that seem to be successful. Perry brags on Texas being fiscally responsible, and yet our state is in the bottom for education and children’s health insurance, and we rank high in DWIs causing deaths. I do not have answers, but we need to examine statements from our leaders.— Corrine Jacobson, Fort Worth Complicated relationshipsIn a Nov. 15 letter, Ross Hase of Fort Worth seemed to imply that same-sex marriages should be legal because some traditional marriages end in divorce but his relationship has lasted longer than "some of them." Many traditional marriages last decades, and surely there are same-sex relationships that end the way some traditional marriages do.He seemed to imply that if one lives in a state that does not allow same-sex marriage, it means living amid hatred. A person does not have to hate in order to oppose same-sex marriage. To assume that everyone who opposes him on this must hate him is a shortsighted oversimplification.He also said he hoped President Obama would put an end to the Defense of Marriage Act so that the decision would not be left up to the voters. No matter how any one individual might feel about this issue, the will of the people must be accepted. That is how democracy works.— Dan Davis, Arlington
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