Chatham County Democratic Party

March, 2010

Below are two draft letters to the Editor penned by Martin Spritzer, a fellow Chatham County Democrat.

Please feel at liberty to copy directly, or revise and rewrite in your words, and email your thoughts to Congressman Etheridge or Congressman Price and to Senator Hagan.  Do consider Spritzer's words as talking points with your neighbors.

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To the editor:

There are some people who are anti-government, anti-health reform, anti taxes and anti deficit.

The same people would hardly give up Medicare, a government program run by bureaucrats with a 2 % expense ratio compared with a 15% plus expense ratio of the insurance companies.

Ironically, health reform will not be a goverment run bureaucratic program. While it reins in the most egregious insurance compny abuses, it allows the companies to compete in market exchanges. The government will provide subsidies for less advantaged people but will not be paying providers as Medicare now does. Subsidies and tax credits are hardly novel in our American way of life. (Farmers, eg.) Even more significant the bills before Congress are fully paid for by tax revenues and will reduce future deficits.

As far as taxes go, is not protecting our pocketbooks from rising health care premiums, as reform promises, just as important as not increasing taxes? And exactly whose taxes are going to rise? Only the wealthy or those with the Cadillac health plans as well as as the wealthy who benefitted from the expiring Bush tax cuts. The latter will now be paying the same as they paid under the Reagan era tax rates. My goodness, was Reagan a socialist?

One would think these "anti's" would be grateful that health reform is estimated to reduce the federal deicit by $132 billion in a decade compared to the Republican policies of tax cuts for the wealthy, two unfunded wars and an unfunded Medicare drug program which turned a $400 billion surplus in to a trillion dollar deficit; and to which most anti's gave little objection at the time.

Should we merely recognize the inconsistency of the antis' complaints or be less charitable in characterizing them as the height of hypocrisy?

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To the Editor:

Why should the Democrats not use the reconciliation process to pass health care? Is there something sinister and undemocratic in having majority rule- 51 votes out of 100 instead of the anti- filibuster vote of 60?

We should recognize that the Republicans used the process many more times than the Democrats(16 t0 3) to "jam" through their programs including the infamous Bush tax cuts which began turning our surplus in to the huge federal deficit we are now enduring.

The Democrats should adopt health reform now and not give in to the fear mongering and Republican hypocrisy.
 

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Our county suffered a second grievous lose with the unexpected death of Margie Horton Ellison on October 2, 2009. The founder of Together United for Freedom, T.U.F.F., Margie was a mentor of Chatham youth and a teacher of its history. Margie's family has made Chatham County home for more than 170 years. She will be sorely missed.

Read the opinion piece by Paul Krugman in the New York Times July 6th 2009 Edition

President Obama welcomed Coach Smith and the Number One Tar Heel Basketball team to the White House, recognizing yet another national championship in their history of excellence. Click here to view an 8 minute Youtube video of the event. The video requires a high speed connection for best viewing.

On Saturday evening, May 2nd, 2009 Tim Kane, Governor of Virginia and the Chair of the National Democratic Party, delivered a rousing and informative keynote speech at the annual Jefferson Jackson Day gathering of the faithful. Thanks to WNCN, Channel 17, an 8 minute video of the speech is available at this link. Click here to view the speech. The video requires a high speed connection for best viewing.

On Friday, March 21st, 2009 Debra J. Henzey, Director of Community Relations for the Chatham County Manager's Office released the following news summarized as follows (full details may be obtained by calling Holly Coleman at , Debra Henzey at 919-542-8258, or Marissa Jelks at 919-545-8517).

Chatham County and Healthy Chatham's Affordable Health Care Task Force are participating with the National Association of Counties (NACo) in a program to provide, at no cost, a discount card to help residents with the high price of prescription drugs.

Key points of the program include:

• Card is free county residents
• There is no cost to the County or to taxpayers
• The card provides potential savings of an average of 20% on retail prices for many medications
• The card is available regardless of age, income, or existing health coverage
• You do not have to be Medicare eligible to use the card
• No enrollment form, no membership fee, no restrictions on frequency of use
• Use the card if you have no insurance, or if your insurance doesn't cover your prescription
• Cards are available at many local public offices and agencies including the Pittsboro and Siler City town halls

Additional information is available in a pre-recorded message, in English and Spanish, at 919-545-8461.

Or see the NACo Drug Card page on the Chatham County Web site for more details, a list of all locations currently issuing cards, and a list of local pharmacies currently honoring them.