Medicare payment reduction will have a serious impact
If any of you are on Medicare, please know that effective Jan. 1, 2012, payments to doctors who serve Medicare patients will be reduced 27 percent. This may have a significant financial impact on many medical practices in our county and elsewhere. It could cause them to reduce the number of Medicare patients, or drop them altogether. This wonít be their fault, it lies strictly with the people you vote for in Washington, D.C. They donít much care about us seniors. Theyíll cut Medicare, but send billions of dollars to Brazil, Pakistan, Palestine and soon-to-be-bankrupt energy companies and foreign electric car manufacturers. This Medicare reduction can be stopped (repealed) but it will take all of us to contact our senators and congressional representatives now and let them know we will not let them get away with it. Thank you.
ó Donald Schumacher
Salisbury
A question of citizenship
After reading recent letters to the editor concerning an ID requirement in order to vote, the first question we should ask is: Who is a citizen? According to the dictionary, a citizen is a: ělegal resident of country: somebody who has the right to live in a country because he or she was born there or has been legally accepted as a permanent resident.î
To my knowledge, there has not been a suggested poll tax, a literacy test or any indication of violence against voters, except in 2008 when the Black Panthers threatened voters, and which the present administration refused to investigate.
This is not an attempt to refuse voting rights to the poor, the elderly or to discriminate against minorities. Anyone, as far as I am aware, can go the driverís license office and apply for an identification card, not a driving license but a simple identification card, for a modest fee. Many people have done this because they do not have a driving license, so as to have a name and picture ID. I fail to see how any unfunded ID system is even being suggested or a valid issue.
The issue is a simply this: Are you a citizen of the United States? If the answer is yes, then by all means you should vote; if no, absolutely not.
ó Richard Roberts
Kannapolis
Would-be robbers, beware
Regarding the story ěClerk shoots gunman during store robberyî:
To all local criminals with guns: Make sure ěAnnie Oakleyî doesnít run or own the store you decide to target. There are more and more women licensed to carry these days.
ó Frankie Cavin
China Grove