Readers write for Dec. 22, 2009

Can just one politician (other than Nebraska Sen. Ben. Nelson) please tell me why the entire United States should cover Nebraska's share of any expansion of Medicaid costs?

This bribery brings politics to a new low. The spending bill was again full of pork, and now Sen. Harry Reid spends my money to buy a vote for health care reform. I had been keeping an open mind on health care reform, but the Dems have lost me -- maybe forever.

And the politicians wonder why we don't trust them?

RAY PULLES, SUN LAKES, ARIZ.

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The Senate Republicans should be ashamed of their obstructionist attempts to derail attempts to reform our nation's health care. Their group response reminds me of what Vice President Spiro Agnew used to call his critics: "nattering nabobs of negativism."

PETE BOELTER, NORTH BRANCH

In the announcement that the Senate has its 60 votes to pass massive health legislation, one thing has become alarmingly evident: Minnesota will lose.

Minnesota is touted nationally as a "model" because of our high quality care, innovation and low costs. Yet these facts are useless when $483 billion of the $871 billion cost of the proposed reform is "cuts to Medicare." Our doctors and hospitals will get paid less regardless of their quality or achievement.

Already Minnesota is paid at the bottom of the Medicare scale, yet holdout and key political states like Kansas, Louisiana, Montana and high-cost states are receiving additional funding and protection against cuts. Hawaii is even given a complete pass and will be able to "opt out" altogether. Minnesota's health care system is arguably better than Hawaii's, so why is opting out not available to us?

Yet our senators seem happy that they successfully negotiated avoidance of a new job-killing medical device tax -- small potatoes, folks. Reform should be rewarding Minnesota, yet it appears that we will be forced to sacrifice disproportionately.

CHRIS SCHNEEMAN, MENDOTA HEIGHTS

Money would increase the purses, hence, we'd have better horses, trainers, etc., coming to race at Canterbury. It has a very safe and beautiful track that jockeys, trainers and fans enjoy being a part of.

Slots are needed for the horse industry to thrive in our state. Many people are employed in this industry, and their future would be secured by the addition of a racino at Canterbury. I doubt it would increase gambling in the state. People will gamble anyway. So, let the horse racing industry benefit.

CAROL SCHWANKL, BLOOMINGTON

After being bailed out by taxpayers, Citigroup imposes a $1,748 back interest assessment to someone who did not miss a payment for three years, because of an accidental payment of only $70 instead of $81 ("$11 mistake earns 0.0% sympathy from Citigroup," Dec. 16). And then it refuses an appeal.

How can anyone oppose restrictions on banking and insurance companies? At a minimum there is a moral crime here, and opponents of regulation are accessories. Thank you, Jon Tevlin, for exposing this latest atrocity.

I was stunned by Garrison Keillor's vituperous, ignorant ramblings in his Sunday column. His mean-spirited rant against intellectuals, Unitarians, and "Jewish guys" who write Christmas songs recalls the ideas of a racial purification movement that justified horrific persecution of categories of people deemed responsible for the woes of 1930s Germany. His sentiments recall Kristallnacht, not "Silent Night."

I was hoping Garrison would retire while we could still appreciate him for his remarkable ability to capture the poignancy of life in Minnesota, for his ability to recall a shared past (or present) with all its peculiar pains and complexities. But now it's too late. He recalls a past (or a present) that is one that should not be not remembered with tenderness, but with deep shame.