Don’t be fooled by Gorsuch’s folksy appeal

Faso failed constituents in fight over health care

Dear Editor: America’s health was given a new lease on life at 3:30 p.m. March 24, 2017, when the Republican health care plan was pulled from consideration just moments before a planned vote in Congress. But it is important not to forget what was a stake: the lives and livelihoods of 24 million Americans who would lose health coverage in a decade (according to the Congressional Budget Office), Obamacare’s protections against the most predatory practices of insurance companies, and the access of millions more to basic health care needs provided by Planned Parenthood.

President Trump himself presented the stakes very clearly in a Tweet: “The irony is that the Freedom Caucus, which is very pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, allows P.P. to continue if they stop this plan!” This was never about improving the health care of Americans. It was a cynical and senseless effort to impose a particular set of moral values on the American people, to erase the legacy of President Obama, and to make the rich even richer. And, as the deadline for the vote got nearer, the bill cost more and more, but did even less.

We should not forget how our representatives stood on this lifeand-death issue. I am profoundly disappointed that U.S. Rep. John Faso, R-Kinderhook, continued to support this bill until it was pulled from the House floor, and I am even more disappointed that he was unreachable in his Washington office on March 23 and March 24. His phone lines were shut during normal business hours and his voice mailbox remained full despite my repeated efforts. It is cowardly to hide from his rightfully concerned constituents. A mere 17 percent of Americans supported this bill, but nearly 100 percent of the Republicans in Congress did. When we needed our representative the most, he was nowhere to be found.

Robert Cioffi, Red Hook

School employees need to contribute more

Dear Editor: Kingston schools Superintendent Paul Padalino says the district is “nearly twice as far away from balancing the 20172018 budget than first thought, as there is roughly a $1.1 million chasm between a rollover plan and the state-mandated tax cap.”

Assistant Superintendent Allen Olsen: “The bad news is our teachers’ health plan insurance premiums are going to increase by several percentage points more than our wildest imagination allowed us to think.”

Employee health insurance costs will increase by 13.3 percent or $460,000. Which means the will district spend $35.5 million on health insurance in 201718, 21 percent of the district’s budget. More than one out of every five dollars is spent on health insurance.

So the two financial geniuses, Padalino and Olsen, have the standard solution to all short falls: “We need more state aid.”

How about a thinking-out-ofthe-box solution? Isn’t it time for school district employees to start making contributions to their very expensive, taxpayer-funded health plan? Most employees in the real world contribute 20 percent to their health plans. Twenty percent of $35.5 million is $7.1 million — voila, we have a solution at no additional cost to the local taxpayers and no need for additional state aid.

Charles Landi, Kingston Editor’s note: Since this letter was submitted to the Freeman, the school district has said the gap between the 2017-18 tax levy, as it now stands, and the state’s cap for the district has increased to $1.6 million due to even higher health insurance costs. Dear Editor: Golly, gee whiz, gosh. Neil Gorsuch’s folksy homage to all things Western, with its goats and parades and county fairs, doesn’t take away from the fact that he is a far-right “originalist” jurist chosen by the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.

He was nominated for the Supreme Court by a president whose administration is under investigation by the FBI for ties, and possible collusion, with a hostile foreign government.

To top it all off, he is being asked to fill a stolen seat on the bench.

It has been over a year since President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pronounced that Garland would not even get a hearing because the president was a lame duck and the voters in a future election should make the choice. It did not matter that the voters had already spoken in two Obama landslides. The court has been right-leaning for 40 years, even though the country has changed dramatically during that time. And, despite the Foxification of a large number of people, we are still a country that believes in fairness and justice for everyone. However, the rightleaning Roberts court decidedly favors corporations over employees and religion over secular, as does Gorsuch.

Gorsuch is sailing through this process with softball questions and giggle fests from the Republicans who display their own hypocrisy. They decry the Democrats for trying to get some insight into how Gorsuch might rule when they didn’t even care to have a meeting with a fully qualified nominee.

Gorsuch is a young man seeking a lifetime appointment. That’s a lot of time and a lot of decisions.

Gorsuch’s aw-shucks talk, adoring wife and chuckling Republican acolytes shouldn’t fool anyone. The reason the Republicans wanted this seat so badly is because what they aren’t able to do legislatively can be done through the Roberts court. The Democrats need to fight this nomination.

M’Lou Sorrin, Hurley

Dylan concert needs traffic and parking plans

Dear Editor: How is the city planning on handling the traffic that will be coming down Delaware Avenue and North Street for the Bob Dylan concert?

When Smorgasburg opened last year at the same site, on the first day, traffic was backed all the way up Delaware Avenue to Hasbrouck Park. Parking was also a problem on that day.

Also, there must be plans for emergency vehicles to get through if needed for people living in that area and those attending the concert.

Charlie Alecca, Kingston

Of course we’ve had presidents who lied — to name a few, Lyndon Johnson about Vietnam, Richard Nixon about Watergate, Bill Clinton about Monica Lewinsky. But the key word in these examples is “about.” Other presidents had comprehensible though illegitimate reasons for lying about specific things. Trump often lies for no discernible purpose other than to pump up his own fragile ego.