Ken's Comments

The "My Opinion" article on health care reform that the Town and Country got a response. Wow - what an attack. Here is my response to the response - I have submitted this to the Town and Country to see if they want to publish it. Title: I agree to agree, but without the name calling According to the national media, the proponents of the health care bill offer rational thoughts while the opponents are crazy people, yelling a lot and making nasty personal attacks – here in the Valley it is the other way around. Two weeks ago, I wrote an opinion piece explaining in detail why the new health reform law won’t work. Last week’s reply was – well, geeze, I don’t know what I said to bring that on. Ironically, if you overlook the fact that the author never contradicts what I said and omit the personal comments about me, the two real points the gentleman made were legitimate. First, the gentleman was critical of the efforts of the Republicans in the U.S. House or Senate. I agree.

This is a series of mixed comments about the news that President Obama signed a treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons. On the positive side, it s good to see the President is trying to reduce nuclear weapons. This is a continuation of a tradition started by President Reagan. On the negative side, I find the media hype a bit ridiculous and I am sure questions about the treaty and a recent rewriting of the nuclear policy will arise. I just wish the discussions of what is, conceptually, a good idea were a bit more toned down. After all, reducing the nuclear weapons in the world is not a bad idea. Russia is a country that could take a turn, politically, for the worse. So reducing the number of nuclear weapons they have pointed at us is not a bad idea. Also, the treaty did not sell out our development of a missle defense shield in Europe - again a good thing. It is good to see that ideas started by Ronald Reagan - reducing nuclear missiles not controlling the increase and def

The following was published in the Town and Country on April 1 - and not this is not an April fools joke. :-) Why the Health Care Reform Legislation really is bad. The health reform law is a road to disaster paved with good intentions. Start with the nice ideas to protect consumers which, coupled with higher taxes, raise the cost of health insurance. To offset higher costs, the law provides subsidies that are nice if you enjoy a lower paying job. Along with costs, taxes and the deficit will go up too. What goes down is health insurance competition. When President Obama started this process he promised a thoroughbred horse instead we got a three legged camel. For example, didn’t President Obama say he wanted the cost of health insurance to go down? Instead costs will go up because the Democrats wanted to be so good to us. Added to the taxes and regulatory red tape they heaped on insurance companies, there are a bunch of new health benefits that you have to pay for regardless of