Letters to the editor

Here are a few facts most people don’t realize when they sign up for Obamacare:

• Cancer hospitals may ration care according to the person’s age.

• The government will have real-time access to an individual’s personal information.

These are just a few of the hidden loopholes of Obamacare.

Here we go again. In the face of history, the current administration is about to cut the number of Army troops to the bone to “save money” in our struggling economy (2-25, A1, “Army would be cut to pre-WWII size”).

This happened in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor followed with the loss of the Philippines and an almost four-year, bloody fight across the Pacific to Japan. After World War II we let the numbers and training readiness go to the bottom again.

For this we lost a great number of unprepared young American troops in Korea. Only one ready Marine Division (the 1st) pulled then-President Harry Truman’s ashes out of the fire with an amphibious landing at Inchon and a fighting advance to the North Korean border with China and another three-year war.

Reduction in military strength and readiness is a clear sign to any of our potential enemies that we are unwilling or unable to fight.

President Barack Obama’s first-term achievements are a sustained record of high unemployment, a record number of Americans on food stamps, high poverty rates, a paralyzed economy, a skyrocketing national debt, record deficits, a downgraded U.S. credit rating, record prices at the gasoline pump, covering up terrorist attacks, a Middle East in flames, growing Islamic extremism, diminished global influence, Iran close to acquiring a nuclear weapon, weakened relationships with our allies and empowerment of our enemies.

His second-term agenda is more of the first, with the addition of weakening the U.S. military and our country through huge military budget cuts to support his vast expansion of big government and entitlements, continued and increased Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservatives, expanding government intervention into the privacy and liberty of individuals, and continued insistence on pushing a failed health care takeover.

Obama’s new liberalism is all about redistributionist taxation, transfer payments, ever-expanding entitlements, tax breaks and subsidies to those who support him, welfare without work, and entitlements by decree leading to national insolvency and the breeding of debilitating individual dependency.

Values that made this country great, such as character, independence, energy and hard work as the foundation of a free society and thriving economy, are all discounted and devalued by Obama.

Over the years there has been much talk about the need in Kansas City for a strong mayor-style of leadership, along with ideas as to how we might improve our council/city manager type of government. It may be time for some changes.

Helpful changes would be to eliminate all district council positions, which would free up money to attract more qualified department heads who would mostly run the city. Our city election system also needs to permit voting by mail or voting by email on some issues to save on expensive elections.

Six council members and the mayor should be enough politicians to run the city.

This story was originally published March 4, 2014 at 9:17 PM with the headline "Letters to the editor."