Something is fishy about speed of Medicare measure

Something is fishy aboutspeed of Medicare measure
EDITOR:
Faster than a bullet or a speeding train ... it's Super Bill! A never-before-seen, voluminous (675 pages) Medicare reform bill was handed to our representatives Thursday night, briefly debated by the House on Friday, passed by the House on Saturday morning, debated Sunday and Monday by the Senate and voted into law Tuesday morning.
Questions:
*If the contents of this bill were not available until Thursday night, how did AARP get the inside scoop for their $7 million media blitz that ran well before Thursday? (Hint: Democrats were completely locked out of this bill's creation.)
*How did everyone prepare to vote on 675 pages of never-before-seen, complex legislation in a day or two? (Hint: Democrats were the only people who were not privy to the contents beforehand).
*How did the House rules permit a 15-minute vote to remain open for a history-making three hours, or until the votes needed were found or changed by coercion via personal presidential phone calls and other forms of arm-twisting. (Hint: Florida election 2000, weapons of mass destruction, etc.)
*Why don't we expect the same health coverage as our elected officials? (Hint: Apathy.)
*Why would such an important piece of legislation be rushed through to passage when few understand exactly how it's going to work? (Hint: Election 2004.)
The holding open of the House vote for three hours and vote-changing was a democratic travesty. The House vote would have failed if the 15-minute time limit were followed. What is next? Holding election polls open until the desired results are exacted?
This writer is exhausted and disheartened from following these proceedings since Friday. It is troublesome to see the extent special interests control our government. Special-interest activities might be curtailed if more would just make an extra effort to be informed and hold elected officials accountable at the voting booths.
P.S. Both our senators voted for the (thankfully) defeated special-interest-laden energy bill (debuting again early next year) and Medicare reform bill.
LINDA KOPCZAK
West Mecca
Region needs to swallowpride, unite to create jobs
EDITOR:
The article on the front page of the local section Nov. 5 concerning the net loss in college-educated young people in the area caught my eye.
I have this question. What jobs are available in the area that are in any way, shape or form connected with what these young people are trained to do? Of course they are leaving. As noted near the end of the article, they're going where the jobs are.
An item that was not addressed was the probability that there are college-age young people who are leaving the area to take up residence in another state to take advantage of that state's lower tuition costs and never coming back. Despite the touted increases in state university tuition rates across the country, Ohio's state university tuition costs are among the very highest in the country.
Will there be any turnaround? Not until all the region's communities learn to work together. Unless the entire Northeast Ohio region swallows its collective false pride, the descent down the tubes will continue unchecked. The attitude of "Gee, your end of the canoe is sinking" that prevails in this region will not hack it.
Likewise, a dependence on service jobs will not be enough. One of the forgotten and more important tenets of the old economy was that the workers could afford to buy what they were making. Those departing young college graduates want to be able to do that.
JEROME K. STEPHENS
Warren