Four Concerns

I have given a lot of thought reference four issues/problems in the United States of America, which our elected officials don't seem to want to address in a serious manner. The time is well overdue for the American people to make sure there is a big turn over in Washington starting November 2006. Most of the elected officials have been there too long and they act as though they can do what they want or do nothing but talk and still be elected. It is time for the people to show them that this idea simply will not continue to work. The officials have no idea how hard it is for many Americans to make a living in this country unless you are wealthy. A lot of people do not really live, they just exist. Congressmen and Senators have no problem filling their pockets each year. It is time for the American people to stop voting for the same people and start electing those that are willing to work for us, the people, instead of for themselves. It would benefit us immensely to write letters to our representatives at state and federal levels.

Issues I have a lot of concern about.

Minimum Wage: It is hard for me to believe that anyone thinks a person can live off the national minimum wage of $5.15 an hour and be able to eat healthy and pay rent. They are not living, they are just existing and not very good at that. Four cities do have a higher minimum wage which is still very low and in some of those cities a person may be able to live. This country spends over twice as much to keep a person in prison each year than a lot of families make.



Health Care: Health care continues to rise each year and a lot of us just barely get enough of a raise to meet the cost of insurance, let alone the cost of every thing else going up. I moved to Carlsbad, NM around 1 ½ years ago. I have been in the hospital and had a lot of tests done the last few years. This is the first place that I have had to pay copayments on the full amount of the bill. The other hospitals I have used required me to pay copayments on the amount the insurance paid. We also have millions of people living in this country that are not here working legally, not paying taxes and are getting free medical care that we have to pay for, and sending the money they make back to their country.



Social Security: Congress continues to take billions of dollars paid into Social Security each year to use for their other projects. I have been given the following information, from 1968 to 1998 Congress has taken $706 billion from the social security fund, and from 1999 to 2004 they have taken $906 billion to spend on other projects. The people that run our government do not seem to have a problem with all the billions they are spending to fight someone else's war or the giving away of billions of dollars to other countries. I am not against helping others but the people in our country should definitely come first.



Gas-Oil: I read in the local paper the other day that the cost of getting gas to small towns and the amount that is used has a lot to do with what we pay per gallon. I can go east around 67 miles and purchase gas 10 cents less or more, and north about 40 miles and buy it for up to 20 cents cheaper, yet they have less than 1/3 of the population that we have in Carlsbad. The oil companies are making billions of dollars profit each year and the representatives in Washington cannot figure out what is going on, they say. I don't believe anyone with common sense has a problem figuring out what is going on.


The government interferes with everything else and does not want to do anything about the real issues.



-Harold Adkins
blueskies@plateautel.net