Letters to the Editor

Letters: Obamacare, and a call to No Kings action

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On the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare):

Passed in March of 2010, the objective of the act was to make medical care affordable, yet premiums keep rising at an unaffordable rate. The act placed costly administrative requirements on doctors and hospitals. Before the act doctors could and did set up their own private practices serving their communities. The administrative burden forced many doctors to affiliate with large practices and/or a hospital. Remember the refrain that “you can keep your doctor”? 

The real purpose of the affordable care act was providing health insurance to those 1) who could not afford the premiums, 2) whose employers did not offer a health care plan, 3) to those who had a pre-existing condition and more recently 4) provide health insurance to foreigners who crossed our borders illegally. The government offered health care plans at reduced premiums. Who paid the difference between the cost of the health care plan and the amount charged to those meeting the Obamacare eligibility criteria (400% of the poverty rate)? You did!

At the time this is how it happened. The monthly Medicare tax withheld by your employer increased from 1.45% to 2.35%, The top tax bracket went from 35% to 39.6%, the social security payroll tax increased, Capital Gains tax increased from 15% to 28%, dividend tax went from 15% to 28%, estate tax increased from 0 to 55% and a 3.5% real estate transaction tax was added. The higher taxes are required because Obamacare needs funds to pay the difference between a market based premium and the reduced rate insurance sold to those eligible for Obamacare. They get the same care at a lower premium cost. 

During COVID, Congress expanded the number of people eligible to receive Obamacare subsidies by eliminating the 400% of the poverty rate rule. While it was intended to be temporary to help those out of work, the Progressive/Democrats now want to make this permanent, leading to the Schumer shutdown. If you think the Democrats should not be holding the Country hostage, please contact your elected officials, Senators Sanders and Welch, and House Representative Balint and ask them to vote for the Continuing Resolution which provides funds for existing programs and keeps the government running while they sort out their differences (which is called negotiating).

-Eric Salat, Manchester 

Dear No kings, Mobilize:

I have, even while holding reservations, locally organized for your coalition because I have understood the danger Trump poses, the Frankenstein let loose by Justice John Roberts. However, I am astounded that by this time there has been no word on organizing for effective actions. We have a dangerous and unstable felon in the White House enabled by an equally dangerous MAGA GOP and six MAGA Supreme Court Justices, all supported by an incongruous coalition of anti-abortionists, intolerant religious fanatics, misogynists, climate deniers, greedy capitalists. As if this were not enough, the dangers of nuclear testing are to begin anew so as to distract us while starving us, denying the right to healthcare and a peaceful world.

What do I mean by effective actions?

Rolling General Strikes

Rolling boycotts.

Mass Teach-In in Washington D.C. to span a week or two where we collectively imagine, complete with details, the world we actually want so as to where to successfully focus our energies We have to know WHAT we want before we take aim.

I plan to push these demands.

Thank you.

-Giovanna Lepore, Jericho

Editor’s note: a letter about the Vermont GOP that appeared in an earlier version of this post was withdrawn at the author’s request.

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Categories: Letters to the Editor

14 replies »

  1. Giovanna Lepore,
    I guess you are entitled to your opinion, but you really need to get out your bubble. For one, you missed the fact that global warming has been debunked. “intolerant religious fanatics”, sorry but Charlie Kirk was far from being intolerant. He was willing to listen to anyone. “incongruous coalition of anti-abortionists”, Disagree, life is life. “We have a dangerous and unstable felon in the White House”, Really? I need facts. So far, allegations have disappeared

    • Timothy, now that we know there was even an operation name with the Dangerous and unstable felon in the White House, Joe Biden, ‘Arctic Frost’ and his Marxist plot of ‘show me the man and I’ll show you a crime’, or was it President Autopen

  2. Giovanna, congratulations are in order. You organized a “no kings” rally and it worked. We now have no king, just a duly elected president and vice president and a senate majority and house majority and many others. Thank you for your hard work. Lol

    • Dan, not only ‘duly elected’, but democratically elected with the majority of the popular vote, democracy in action !!

    • By the way, I will defend your constitutional right to say whatever you want, providing it is not a life threatening statement, but I certainly don’t have to agree with it or like it.

  3. Giovanna, one cannot reasonably make such “demands” in this – a Constitutional Republic. You see, such would make you a “Queen” within a society that anoints no royalty.

    I voted for President Trump & V.P. Vance, as did the majority of American citizens, in 2024. Perhaps a most basic review of American & Constitutional history might benefit you and help relieve your TDS. After all, you certainly can’t rely on getting treated successfully for that at the University of VT Medical Center, can you?

    In the meanwhile, I plan to “imagine” what this nation would once again look like without the Communists, Marxists, socialists, Illegal Immigrants, terrorists ushered in via illegal open “borders, and the rest of the radicals like yourself who are attempting to obviously overthrow this representative democracy.

    Take your offenses to a country wherein human rights are non-existent or violated chronically such as virtually every Middle Eastern nation except Israel, Cuba, Venezuela, Communist China, North Korea, India…..the list goes on & on. Particularly as a female making deranged demands in those countries, I’m sure you will gain headway. Either that or be beheaded. One can only “imagine”.

  4. Many woodpeckers pecking on that empty steel drum and making a lot of noise, but no action on this website. Maybe the COVID KILL SHOT and BOOSTERS did have a major impact on the brain of some humans. Comment from Richard Day.

    • Obamacare was to convince everyone health insurance was made more affordable by using their tax dollars to subsidize the same overpriced plans they already couldn’t afford

  6. I find it interesting that Obamacare was taken from the template of RomneyCare. Two wings, one bird.

    I find it interesting that for over 50 years, whoever sits behind the Resolute Desk is only a figurehead, controlled and compromised, and so few comprehend it. What did John Kennedy mean when he said “secret societies?” From that speech on April 27, 1961, two years and seven months later, he was eliminated on November 22, 1963. The “27” club – symbolism and rituals by the numbers, allegedly. Listen and watch for “33” and “88” coming up a lot – break their codes and find a real rainbow.

    Keep the vibrations low, keep bickering over the psyops, and watch how the powers install the plan for the new world order, depopulation, wealth transfer, reset out of all of the chaos. A redux of the 19th century and centuries before. We learned nothing from 2020 and for that the hits keep right on coming…