Letters
Home on the Range
Let me get this straight: AFSCME wants me to vote for people who have F ratings from Gun Owners of America just because they're pro-union? Well, I'm an American first. I will never vote for someone who practices the politics of prohibition of any constitutional right.
Simply being pro-union is not enough. What good is a good job if I can't go to the range and shoot because some moron in Washington thinks I am the problem? What good is a good job if I can't take the family to the mountains and hunt or just target shoot? Or if that job can be taken from me by a burglar or highwayman who doesn't care what the law is? Is some senator or representative going to lend my wife some Secret Service agents if she needs to go cash her paycheck? No, they're not.
So tell your filet-mignon-eating, 12-year-old-Scotch-drinking, Beltway buddies that, we, the workers, are sick of their preaching about social issues, and to just stick to jobs and wages. The last Democrat who stuck to the ethos of the Democratic Party was Hubert Humphrey. The last one I voted for was Walter Mondale, which was a mistake.
Eric M. Sanders
Local 1070 (DC 37)
White Plains, N.Y.
Taxes Are Bad For Us ...
In the July/August article "More Taxes, Fewer Layoffs," you praise the Massachusetts House of Representatives for voting to raise taxes. That is so typical of the brass in this union. You failed to mention that the income-tax reduction scheduled to be scrapped was overwhelmingly passed by voter referendum.
"Taxachusetts" continues to lead the nation in taxing its working people to death. Where do you think most of the $1 billion tax increase you support will come from? I guess only rich people smoke cigarettes, have taxable investments and give to charities. Who do you suppose is hurt the most by a 25 percent reduction in the personal exemption? Not the rich — I think it doesn't affect them at all.
The tax increase will be placed squarely on the backs of our membership.
Gregg Fraser
Local 1636
(Council 93)
East Falmouth, Mass.
... No, They're Good For Us
I have been a Special Agent with the Illinois Department of Revenue for 18 years. I guess that, when it comes to taxes and big corporations, I have earned the right to have opinions.
Basically, I have learned that whenever a politician says he is going to cut taxes, it ends up costing the taxpayer more money. Here in Illinois, the belt they are tightening is strangling not only the state's taxpayers but also our members. High-level managers and supervisors do not do the work: We do it.
Do you think average taxpayers benefits from tax cuts? They don't. When services are cut — for example, in the mental health area — patients are let out of the facilities and sent to the street. They do not receive the correct medicine. The police, and therefore the taxpayers, still have to deal with them — and at greater cost. Or take corrections: Not having enough corrections officers makes for a dangerous situation for other COs and the public.
Instead of cutting taxes, we need to hire workers so taxes are collected fairly. These days if you don't pay your fair share, nothing happens to you. The country just charges more taxes to those who do pay them.
In addition, we need to stop eliminating the jobs of employees who work in tax enforcement. Cutting those will cost the state even more.
Sam Rossi
Local 2467 (Council 31)
Chicago
Combat Corporate Greed
Kudos for Susan Holleran's story on prescription drug costs (May/June Public Employee), which could easily have been titled, "Out in the Cold Without Medicines." This important article documents the plight of senior citizens and others who cannot afford to buy medications in their own country, where the prices have been artificially raised to enhance corporate profits. The same products are sold in other countries — such as Canada — at lower prices, and corporate interests still make substantial gains. Thus prices in the United States could be lowered without causing harm to the profit and research interests of the same companies that sell in Canada.
Robert L. Weinmann, MD
President, Union of American
Physicians and Dentists/AFSCME Local 206
Oakland, Calif.
