Elmwood waif

In response to some of your readers (12-11, A4, “Cemetery dog is captured, but deer pal is perplexed”), Wayside is happy to report the young Shar Pei mix we named Mattie is making progress.

Mattie is receiving medical treatment, food, toys and warm shelter while Wayside’s staff works to build her trust. These will be the first steps in her journey to building strong socialization skills, but this can take a considerable amount of time.

Wayside Waifs is committed to putting all of our available resources into caring for Mattie and ultimately helping her find a forever home. Wayside Waifs does not euthanize adoptable animals, and there are no limits for animals in our care.

Despite pleas from the public to leave Mattie and Ella together in the cemetery, our veterinarians are certain Mattie would not have survived the winter living in the cemetery without proper food, water and shelter, while her doe friend, Ella, is equipped to survive in the wild.

All of us at Wayside are heartened by the love everyone has shown for this poor waif. Community support is what allows us to provide these life-saving services to all who enter our doors.

I assure you Mattie will have a merry Christmas.

Cynthia Smith

president,

Wayside Waifs

Kansas City

Name U.S. debt level

To House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, just how much debt is acceptable? To the liberal Democrats, it obviously is not $16 trillion.

Is it $20 trillion? Is it $50 trillion? $100 trillion?

At $16 trillion, if we collected $1 trillion more in taxes every year, it would take 16 years (without interest) to pay off our debt. If we decided to collect an extra $500 billion, it would take (without interest) 32 years.

Can someone please ask Pelosi and Reid what their debt limit is?

Terry Kliethermes

Leawood

Armed teachers

Everyone has heard about the horrific shootings in Connecticut by now.

My idea to help stop any future shooters is to set up programs whereby teachers who volunteer, and qualify, can take training and become auxiliary police officers.

If each school could get one or two teachers who are armed and have law-enforcement training, that would help stop shooters early on, before they can kill multiple people.

Chad Kincham

Liberty

Obama’s next term

America has Barack Obama as our leader another four years. What kind of leader will he be?

Will he be responsible in a way he has not shown over the last four years?

It all depends on whether he can answer the following questions or whether he continues to hide behind others and an incurious and docile media.

Who is responsible for giving guns to the Mexican mafia, resulting in the deaths of hundreds and now refusing (contempt of Congress) to provide the facts and evidence of his involvement?

Who is responsible for lying about Benghazi, calling our four dead heroes a bump in the road and then flying to Las Vegas for a fundraiser?

Who is responsible for a trillion-dollar-a-year deficit that is destroying our dollar and our nation?

Blame it all on former president George Bush? That dog won’t hunt another four years, and neither will lies and cover-ups.

Charley Morasch

Leawood

Holiday drinking

I was watching the morning news recently, and a story came on about drinking and driving, driving-under-the-influence checkpoints and how cops are going to be out.

As a mother of three and an active member in our community, I would love to see our news stations educate viewers on how they can enjoy the holidays, have fun, drink responsibly and not be afraid to go out.

I know my kids are going to go out to the bars and meet their friends. As a parent, I make sure they know how important it is not to drink and drive.

I tell them to have fun and make sure they get a cab home. A little over a year ago, I had my kids program 10/10 Taxi’s number in their phones and remind them to use it.

I don’t think the Johnson County community knows how many cabs there are in the area.

I would love to see our television news stations and newspapers teach the community that it is OK to go out with your family and friends, have fun, be safe and make a responsible decision and call a cab.

I’m a huge supporter of 10/10 and glad to see so many cabs are available.

Marie Edwards

Overland Park

Expanding Medicaid

Now that Gov. Jay Nixon supports it, it is all the more important that the Republicans’ super majorities in the Missouri legislature continue to stand against the huge Medicaid expansion.

The billions of dollars dangled before the states to get them to fall for the Medicaid expansion is guaranteed only through 2020.

By that time, millions more will have been made dependent on Medicaid, and thus it would then be difficult for the states to reduce the then-unaffordable benefits.

Medicaid is already breaking the states.

How can the federal government guarantee to cover the early phases of the Medicaid expansion anyway? The U.S. is $16 trillion in debt and has at least $87 trillion in unfunded liability for Social Security and Medicare alone.

Not often mentioned in the debate is how inferior Medicaid is. More doctors refuse to take Medicaid patients because of unaffordable reimbursements.

That is how government health care always works: costs surge and service deteriorates. The bureaucracies gobble up money.

It can be hoped that Republican governors and state legislatures continue to fight the Medicaid expansion and Obamacare as if the survival of our country as it was founded depends on it.

Mark S. Robertson

Independence

Keeping Social Security

A recent survey showed young people wondered whether Social Security would be around for their retirement. Today, 4.3 million children receive survivors’ benefits from a deceased parent’s Social Security account.

When today’s young people get their Social Security numbers, if they die, their spouse, children and maybe their parents will receive survivors’ payments.

You or someone you know has been aided by dependents’ or survivors’ benefits.

In 1939, dependents’ and survivors’ benefits were added to Social Security premiums. Social Security is managed by a congressional committee, which studies needs and makes suggestions to Congress and the president, who set the premiums for the next year.

Social Security premiums have been changed each year since 1974. If no changes are made to the program, Social Security can make full payments for the next 21 years, and then payments will be 75 percent.

I look for changes before 21 years.

Harry R. Weitkemper

Columbia, Mo.

GOP’s painful cuts

Republicans insist that Medicare, Medicaid and other programs must take a hit in order to come to some kind of budget agreement.

Republican leadership talks as if such cuts would just affect Democrats.

Are there no Republicans receiving benefits under Medicare or Medicaid? I would say with confidence that the number of Republicans on those programs would nearly equal the number of Democrats receiving benefits.

In their quest to protect the tax rates of the top 2 percent, do they ignore their own aging constituents? It would appear that they do.

When are Republicans over age 65, and those who hope to be, going to see the truth about their leadership’s motives and voice their objections? It is recognized that some programs must be reformed to some extent but not slashed beyond recognition.

I would be dismayed if my legislators wanted to cut my safety net in order to benefit the rich. That is a no-brainer.

Jerry Nowak

Lee’s Summit

Political name-calling

Even past Republicans are bashing the GOP. Where did this “ultra-religious Christians” and “corporate welfare kings” name-calling get started? By Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Harry Reid and President Barack Obama, that’s where.

Perception is powerful. If you would only look through the forest and check out the trees you’d find most Republicans are not super rich or crazed with religion. They are your neighbors next door trying to make a living just like you are.

The Democrats pushed Republicans into spilling all their moral values into the public foray by pressing abortion and their made-up perception of the war on women.

Perhaps one should be more concerned about the Democrats taking God out of their lives and creating the perception that being faithful to our religion makes us “crazed.”

Kathy H. Dix

Fairway