YOUR VIEWS

Health care solution

The U.S. House of Representatives barely passed a substitute for the Affordable Care Act. Since then the Senate has been attempting to pass a similar bill to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. Ignored by congressmen, Obamacare beneficiaries and the major media is the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) for 1.4 million federal employees. Since 2013, FEHB has provided no waiting time, no pre-existing conditions exceptions, no-cost preventive services, retirement conversion available, and 11 options (dental, long term care, etc.). Financing has been 30 percent by employees and 70 percent by employing federal agencies.

Congress knows FEHB well. They, their dependents and staffs are already enrolled in FEHB with its cost to them of 30 percent. The current legislative hassles are unnecessary — just expand FEHB from 1.4 million to 300 million citizens. The “deplorable” taxpayers, who are paying the 70 percent, deserve what the “public servants” have reserved for themselves.

John Terneus, Yukon

Pruitt’s troubling travel

Last week, troubling evidence came to light about EPA administrator, and former Oklahoma attorney general, Scott Pruitt. In short, Pruitt has traveled back to Oklahoma on taxpayer dime over and over to the exclusion of almost any other location.

When the nonpartisan organization American Oversight asked the independent federal watchdog Office of Special Counsel to investigate, Pruitt

tried to deflect, claiming our motives are suspect and our numbers are off. But noticeably, he did not dispute the substance of our claims or provide evidence to the contrary. It’s probably because the facts are clear: During Pruitt’s first three months in office, almost half his time was spent either in Oklahoma or commuting to it. And 90 percent of his trips out of D.C. were to Oklahoma.

While any public official has the right to visit their home state, and should be encouraged to get out and hear directly from the people impacted by their decisions, the frequency of Pruitt’s travel to a single state raises serious questions. His calendars reveal that, more often than not, these trips are mere excuses to stick taxpayers with the bill for his personal travel. And it’s adding up – more than $15,000 over three months, not including expenses for his traveling aides and unusually large security detail.

If Pruitt wants to slash programs at the EPA that protect our air, land and water, he would do well to apply the same austerity to his own travel expenses.

Austin Evers, Washington, D.C. Evers is executive director of American Oversight (www.americanoversight.org).