Once, Democrats loved America as much as Republicans, but no more
Watching all of the news I have only one thing to say: The Democratic Party of today is not your father's Democratic Party.
There was a time that the Democrats were no different in their love of America than the Republicans. They only had different ideas as to how to go about making America a better country than they were born into.
Today's Democrats seem to only be interested in accumulating power for themselves and to hell with America. They want to do away with the police and go so far as to bail out the rioters who are hell-bent on burning and looting our great cities.
They refuse to control the anarchists who infiltrate peaceful protesters and when President Donald Trump offers them help, they put on their political hats and refuse the help — even though people are being hurt and killed — for fear of the president scoring political points.
I am soon to be 80 years old and have in the past voted for Democrats and have never seen any situation where the two parties could not come together when it became a matter of the survival of our republic, but lately, I do not even recognize the Democrat Party. I must say, considering how longtime Democratic House Speaker Tip O'neill and President Ronald Reagan could socialize and probably even have a beer together, I fully believe O’neill would be totally ashamed of how far afield his party has gone.
Darl Mills, Mount Gilead
Work requirement for Medicaid would hurt people who need care
Recently I read that July 30 is the 55th anniversary of Medicaid and Medicare in America. I'm very thankful for the policymakers who signed this into law in 1965. Where I have worked since 1996 I have met hundreds of individuals who have benefited from these government health programs. Now with the latest expansion of Medicaid I personally know people with serious health conditions who got lifesaving care — individuals going blind due to cataracts getting their vision restored and people with decayed teeth obtaining dentures to be more employable.
However, I've also been reading that states,such as Arkansas, that implemented a Medicaid work requirement, terminated thousands of individuals from the Medicaid rolls due to reporting errors. Even workers on Medicaid doing the required hours were terminated due to this complex and frequent bureaucratic paperwork requirement. I don't want to see this happen in Ohio.
The Medicaid work requirement is set to take effect on January 1, 2021. Families and individuals struggling to make ends meet in Ohio do not need another layer of bureaucracy to navigate in order to obtain medical care. They are already stressed enough.
Lynn Williams, Cincinnati
Trump, Devos endanger schools and students with their pressure to open
Secretary of Education Betsy Devos was once again in Ohio on Thursday, pushing to privatize our schools with vouchers, a system that is draining millions of dollars from public schools into private ones.
From low-performing schools to high-achieving schools, the voucher program is costing them money to pay for students who may not have ever attended that district. This is little evidence that the voucher program helps students.
Devos and the Trump administration have no real plan to reopen schools in the fall. She’s leaving no option for hybrid learning and instead wants students spending all of their time in the classroom — and is threatening to pull funding from schools that don’t comply. She’s being reckless with students’, teachers’ and families’ lives by rejecting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in order to bully schools into dangerous situations.
Pushing for vouchers and pushing for schools to reopen is just another attack on public education, and Devos has made it clear she’s a disaster for public education. We need to vote out Trump and Devos in November to save our public schools.
Jarrod Williams, Grove City