Letters to the editor

She’s proud of her record

To the Editor:

I read the letter "Where's our bacon?" (Feb. 4-10) from a Rockville Centre resident. He mentioned that I have done little to bring home funding for my district from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

First and foremost, taking care of my congressional district, including securing projects and creating jobs, has always been a top priority of mine. And I have been successful in doing so. For example, this year I secured $500,000 for the Village of Rockville Centre. This funding, requested by Mayor Mary Bossart, will be used for road construction. As I have done since I was first elected, I sent a letter to every village, the town and the county asking for project requests that I then submit to the Appropriations Committee. On Long Island we pay some of the highest taxes in the country, and we must fight to get our fair share of dollars coming back from Washington.

The Recovery Act, which I was proud to support, did not include earmarks. The bill directed that the governors fund various projects throughout their states. It is up to the leadership of each county, city, town and village to request stimulus funding through their governor's office.

I, like my constituents, wanted to make sure that we received our fair share of the stimulus funding, and I sent a letter on Feb. 24, 2009, to every municipality in my district, urging them to reach out to the governor's office for information on how to receive stimulus funding. In the letter I mentioned that I would gladly support projects and make phone calls and write letters in support of the project. It was, and is, up to the leaders of the individual municipalities to request funding.

There are many provisions in the Recovery Act that I was especially proud to support. The bill gave 95 percent of American workers a tax cut. It included COBRA premium subsidies of 65 percent to help unemployed people afford health insurance coverage from their former employers. It promoted energy-efficient investments in homes by expanding tax credits for purchases such as energy-efficient windows and doors or insulation. It eliminated the repayment requirement for first-time home buyers.

Once again, I am proud of the funding I have been able to bring to my congressional district and state.

U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy

Mineola

Village is creating adversaries

To the Editor:

Regarding "The village plays hardball"

(Feb. 25-March 3), I cannot believe that this is the same village that I moved into almost 14 years ago. I feel that the current village board has lost sight of the fact that we, the taxpayers, are the village, not the few people who sit on that dais in Village Hall.

They must not realize that when the village is digging in and playing hardball against the school district, they are turning each parent and student in the district into an adversary. These are the families that play on these fields and attend the summer programs and pay the garbage taxes.

Why would we suddenly want to get rid of the Cooperative Agreement? It has worked for years under other administrations. With the current economic situation and village residents unable to sell their homes due to high taxes, why on earth would you seek to undermine and weaken the biggest asset this village has going for it, the award-winning, nationally renowned school district?

I suspect that the next elections will be very interesting. I know that many of the high school students who had to leave school to move their cars, and those who were ticketed without even a 24-hour warning after parking changes went into effect, would love to come back now that they're 18 and cast a vote. Yes, I know the argument that these kids shouldn't even have cars, but the reality is that they do, and that there is a solution to the parking problem: Go back to the rules and laws that have served us very well in years past.

On another note, how much did the village pay for that full-page ad in the Herald?

Kathy Ditta

Rockville Centre

Obama should leave U.S. alone

To the Editor:

I just finished reading the letter "Fix it now" (Feb. 25-March 3). Its author, Arnold Kirschner, thinks that George W. Bush left our country in a mess when he left office. For most of his presidency, the economy was strong. Bush did not make a unilateral decision to have our troops go into Iraq and Afghanistan. Many countries agreed, and our precious leaders in this country did as well, including the Democrats. Like so many, Mr. Kirschner wants to blame Bush even though he isn't president any longer. The fellow who is president now is an incompetent amateur who has absolutely no idea what he's doing.

But what's somewhat amusing about the letter is the issue of health care. President Obama was elected and immediately decided he would try to change a bunch of things in his first year. That simply doesn't happen in this country, and that's where his inexperience comes into play. Obama's plan is to fix health care, steal from Medicare and increase debt while we're on the brink of bankruptcy.

Under that plan, Medicare patients lose the ability to seek medical care when the doctors start dropping Medicare because they can't afford to make a living taking it. I have seen this firsthand. Doctors are beginning to drop Medicare in droves. Gee, I wonder how we got to be the greatest nation in the world? I wonder why we have the greatest technology and finest medical care in the world. Is this guy joking?

If I were president, God forbid, and wanted to fix health care, I would meet with the CEOs of the health insurance companies and tell them one thing: The jig is up. We are going to pass a bill that will force you to lower premiums by 18 percent. Then you're going to take another 8 percent of your profits and pay the government so it can be put into Medicare, and another 2 percent for Medicaid. For that, the government will help advertise your product and let folks decide across state lines what they want to buy. There will be no pre-existing condition issues.

What we aren't going to do is turn health care in America into some rinky-dink system. I'm not going to end up with some doctor who doesn't know what he or she is doing and can't provide the best care in the shortest time. Oh yeah, I'd also lower taxes so people spend their money and fuel the economy. That's a very simple concept to grasp.

One last thing. This is what I think Obama can do to help and it's pretty much all he might be able to do: help negotiate the issue of garbage collection at Rockville Centre schools, try to fix the issue with parking at the high school and the playing fields and all that nonsense, and leave our country alone!

Burton Diamond

Rockville Centre