Readers write for March 24, 2010

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn, proves that she has learned well from President Obama, the master of the straw-man argument ("Paul Ryan's road map seems familiar," editorial counterpoint, March 20). McCollum claims that criticisms of health care reform from Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., are well-intentioned but wrong. She castigates Ryan for advocating tax cuts; the partial privatization of Social Security, and the privatizing of Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

In her rush to brand Ryan as a self-serving Republican, McCollum notes that former President George W. Bush's tax cuts added $1.7 trillion to the national debt between 2001 and 2008. If McCollum chose to be honest, she also would have noted that Obama added $2 trillion to the national debt in a little over a year. Moreover, she would have admitted that her party has held the majority in Congress since 2006.

McCollum states that the Congressional Budget Office estimates the health bill will reduce the deficit by $130 billion over the next 10 years and by $1.2 trillion in the following decade. What she chooses not to mention is that the CBO can only score the numbers placed in front of it.

In her next counterpoint, perhaps McCollum could explain why Medicare has a $38 trillion unfunded liability when it was scored to be deficit-neutral at the time of its inception.

JUDITH O'DONNELL, ST. PAUL

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Let me see if I can make sense of this: Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., supports welfare for the rich in our costly farm program but is unwilling to make sure that his rural constituents are adequately protected through health care reform that is supposed to be almost revenue- and cost-neutral?

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To Rep. Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Republicans who want to repeal the health care bill: Which part are you going to repeal first? The $250 to seniors to help pay for prescriptions? The elimination of insurance company-imposed yearly and lifetime benefit caps? The prohibition against being dropped by your insurance company for getting sick? The ability to keep your children on your own insurance plan until they are 26? Or perhaps the tax credit to small businesses to help pay for health insurance?

The fact is that many provisions of the health care bill will prove to be extremely popular with a large majority of Americans. Many Americans will clamor for more benefits once the bill takes full effect.

DEAN E. CARLSON, MINNEAPOLIS

I often disagree with the Star Tribune's editorial stands, but I am in full support of the March 20 editorial ("End the failed Cuba trade, travel bans").

Embargoes have not worked in the past. Presidents from Jefferson to Carter have tried them, and they ended up hurting Americans more than the governments they were intended to punish.

The quicker we open up trade with Cuba, the quicker its people will see the advantages of a free-enterprise economy.

BRAD KOENIG, HECTOR

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stood before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and told its members that their unquestioning support of Israel is hurting the United States ("U.S., Israeli officials work on tensions," March 23). She said that as she travels she now hears criticism of U.S. support for Israel in Asian countries, whereas she used to hear it only in Europe and the Middle East.

How long will AIPAC members continue to put total support of Israel above their loyalty to this country?

Minneapolis has the lowest unemployment rate among major U.S. cities; Minnesota students finish among the top 10 states in reading, math and science tests, and the housing bubble is far less severe in Minnesota than in the rest of the country.

How can all this be? From everything I have heard from Democrats and read in the paper, I was under the impression that Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his "no new taxes" agenda had destroyed our fine state. What gives? Has a program of disinformation been taking place? How can the facts be so far removed from the preponderance of letters to the editor and editorials chiding our governor for his ideas on fiscal responsibility? Someone needs to do a little soul-searching. Hmmmm, who should that be -- the governor or the newspaper?

DOUG CLEMENS, BLOOMINGTON

In his March 22 commentary, Gregg J. Cavanagh, envoy of the elite, railed about a "coalition of the entitled." He said "any resistance to coalition demands for increased public investment in the general welfare is always derided as selfish, mean-spirited, or both." He added that one reason to resist such efforts is "a desire to spend one's earnings on oneself."

That statement practically defines "selfish." I wouldn't expect such a smart lawyer to self-incriminate, but there it is. Taxes will be increased on unearned income accumulated by the elite so that some of their fellow human beings can have basic health care. If that means less gas for the family yacht, so be it.

Thank you, Joseph Piazza, for the great food and memories ("Joseph Piazza ran Cafe di Napoli for decades," obituary, March 17). Throughout high school and college, $1.35 would get me two meatballs and a mound of spaghetti covered with his sweet red sauce. My children were in high school before they knew that the Cafe di Napoli was not the only restaurant in the Twin Cities. By then it was too late; they were hooked just like their dad. It was a sad day when Cafe di Napoli closed, and now with the passing of Piazza it feels like the end of an era. Thanks for the tasteful memories.