Letters for Feb. 16, 2016

Letters for Feb. 16, 2016

Patterson offered bus system facts, not propaganda

Dr. John Patterson’s “Other Voices” column (TGI, Feb. 5) regarding our bus system was really outstanding. Instead of shooting from the hip on bus ridership projections from 2010 to 2035 as our bus supervisor did with flawed information, he did his homework and gave us real, factual numbers.

Dr. Patterson also testified before our council on Feb. 3, punching holes in the mythical predictions that our planners and department heads are making. While their numbers may be pleasing to their bosses, they are skewed and inaccurate.

It was truly a breath of fresh air to hear an academic from the public tell the people truths and not propaganda and false predictions.

Actually, on Dec. 16, the county heads, including our planners and bus supervisors, made a presentation about our General Excise Tax Surcharge to the council and the general public showing a Multimodal Transportation Plan pie chart from 2010 to 2020 to 2035.

This pie chart shows that vehicles in 2010 used by the public are 93.1 percent, whereas bikes, buses and walking make up 6.9 percent of the total. Yet we are spending more time and money on bike lanes and sidewalks than on solving our traffic problems for the 93.1 percent who use their vehicles!

We do not need to increase our excise tax or any other tax to fund these projects (including buses, bikes and walking) but only need to eliminate the millions of dollars of waste in our system that our late auditor and my friend, Ernie Pasion, uncovered in his audits.

Let an experienced, neutral county manager use his/her expertise to fully examine and eliminate our governmental waste before raising our taxes further. The people are sick and tired of paying more and more taxes and getting no more benefits than we did before the increases.

Thank you, Dr. Patterson, for your excellent input, and please stay involved with our manager issue.

Glenn Mickens

Kapaa

Health insurance fight goes on

The argument about Medicare for all opened this evening’s Democratic debate on PBS.

Hillary Clinton is firmly on the side of the insurance companies by supporting Obamacare over Medicare for all.

Yes, Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) is much, much better than the previous health insurance regime. Yet, there are still over 30,000,000 Americans who still have no health insurance at all!

And the insurance companies still have their own “death panels” which regularly deny claims to policy holders. I make about two or three claims a year, yet have to spend hours resolving each one. I pay thousands of dollars in premiums for maybe $300 in services. I am satisfied with the service I receive on Kauai. I like my doctor. But my insurance company?

One must also look at the failing U.S. economy. Will people have to make the choice between having health insurance or having enough to eat?

Bernie Sanders admits that the average middle class family will pay $500 more per year in taxes to cover his plan. Yet, they will save $5,000 in insurance premiums! I could use $4,500 in my pocket! Truth be told though, even if I pay $6,000 in taxes for a $5,000 decrease in insurance premiums, it is worth it to me to be sure that every American has quality health care!

Clinton’s counter is that she doesn’t want to continue the fight with the insurance companies.

Is Clinton telling America that she hasn’t the strength to stand up to the criminals who own our health industry?

John Zwiebel

Kalaheo