Letters to the editor: Medicare for all, dump Brownback-like legislators, gun background checks

Background checks

I never ceased to be amazed by the Republicans and their objections to background checks for wannabe gun owners. The GOP claims it infringes on individuals’ privacy.

Have these same people ever looked at other people’s Facebook accounts, where every detail of the user’s life is revealed. There is no such thing as privacy, except for political candidates’ list of their big money donors.

Marlene Shulkin

Prairie Village

Sanders’ appeal

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders proposes a Medicare-for-all system as a way to control costs and achieve universal coverage. No, this is not a socialized medicine proposal.

Socialized medicine is when the government owns hospitals and possibly other elements of a health care system. A Medicare-for-all system is basically a nonprofit insurance arrangement whereby all the people make up the risk pool, and the government acts as administrator.

Your tax is your premium, which will be much lower than now because private insurance profits and marketing costs are eliminated. In this arrangement, the government would have the negotiating power to control costs on every aspect of health care.

In the current “medical industrial complex,” every aspect of the system is designed to work for the profits of the providers, not the health of the public. Most people have no idea how big the medical interests lobbies are. They literally swarm congressmen. Any good for the public that comes from this system is simply collateral benefit.

Sanders’ proposal is simply a rational way to provide universal coverage for the whole population at a cost that is affordable to our nation. Sanders’ popularity is primarily because he’s calling out the corruption that is rampant in our political and economic system.

There is a good portion of the U.S. population that knows this system is rotten, and that it needs to be exposed. This is why Sanders’ rally crowds are so huge.

It’s exciting to hear someone speak truth to power, to use a cliche. How often does that happen, especially from a viable candidate in a U.S. presidential race?

Sanders can do this because he gets his financial support from small individual donors and not from corporate interests. It’s a political revolution whose time has come.

Ken Gates

Overland Park

Improve Kansas

What’s the matter with Kansas? Nothing that can’t be corrected. It is too late to do anything with Gov. Sam Brownback.

But it is not too late to replace his band of economic tinkerers in the House and Senate with people who can reach across the aisle and get things working again. This is a big election year. If you are tired of the Brownback ways, then get out and vote.

Voting is good for the political right and left to get people in office who can get the job done. Make Kansas a proud state again.

William Mace

Overland Park

Left-turn jitters

I can’t be the only one who gets more than just a little nervous when making a left turn at a big intersection in which another driver, opposite to me, is trying to turn left as well. You may be asking yourself why I find these left turns to be nerve racking, and the answer lies in the traffic signal.

I have waited in many left turn lanes, only to receive a solid green light or a flashing yellow arrow light. I understand that I must yield to oncoming drivers when I receive such a signal, but the problem occurs when the driver opposite to me is trying to make the same left turn, only in the opposite direction.

I find myself creeping out as far as I can to see whether there are any oncoming cars. But my view is blocked every time because of the car on the opposite side.

These scenarios are dangerous because they can lead to T-bone accidents. I would like to propose allowing these traffic lights to give a green arrow for a short period of time so that those people turning left may do so without concern for lives.

Zach LeMense

Leawood

Bill on dog racing

House Bill 2322 seeks to support the reopening of three long-closed dog racing tracks in Kansas. House Bill 2322 is a bad idea fiscally.

These tracks were closed because Kansans do not support dog racing. Since 2001, more than two dozen dog tracks have closed across the United States, and dog racing now represents less than 1 percent of all wagers placed each year.

Slot machine subsidies have failed in other states because like most subsidies attempts to manipulate a free-market are doomed to fail. Greyhound racing is a dying industry and illegal in 39 states.

House Bill 2322 is a bad idea ethically. House Bill 2322 caters to the gambling industry and has no regard for animal welfare.

Kansas holds the dubious title of second in the country for the number of puppy mills in the state, and the last thing we need are more dog breeding operations acting as a direct pipeline to our shelters and rescues. The racing industry promotes an overproduction of dogs resulting in an annual surplus numbering in the thousands and many of these animals are simply “destroyed.”

Please make your voice heard in Topeka on this important topic.

Shelley Homan

Olathe

This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Letters to the editor: Medicare for all, dump Brownback-like legislators, gun background checks."