NECESSARY TOOL
Use reconciliation, pass health care reform
Reconciliation as a means to ensure an up-or-down vote on health care reform in the Senate is justified. Remember, the House and Senate already passed separate bills, and these differ greatly in their content. Reform opponents have spent more than $1 million daily on advertisements and Tea Party rallies to scare and confuse voters.
Those who think reconciliation is new, or by some twisted logic believe that it signifies the end of democracy, need to learn American history. The GOP has used reconciliation on 16 occasions during my adult life, including for sweeping welfare reform. Health care reform is desperately needed to refocus our economy and establish a vibrant future. If reconciliation is the only path forward, so be it.
RICHARD ZEYEN, FALCON HEIGHTS
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President Obama said last week that he was open to four new Republican proposals on health care legislation, a gesture of bipartisanship meant to jump-start his stalled drive to overhaul the system. So when you take those four good ideas and insert them into a bill that is laden with bad ideas, what's the result? A bill loaded with bad ideas and four good ideas. Please start over. You never build a house on top of a bad foundation.
MIKE MCLEAN, RICHFIELD
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In 1966, my Austrian grandmother visited us and firmly announced that America was an uncivilized country because it didn't have national health insurance. Forty-four years later, here I sit looking at the opinion page ("Charting America's health care conundrum," Feb. 28) and note that Austria spends exactly half as much per person on health care as the United States, yet life expectancy there is nearly three years longer. Other health statistics track the same disparity between the extraordinary amount Americans spend on health and the results they get.
My grandmother was correct: We have allowed market-based health care to drive us into insolvency. Forty-four years ago, America was at the apex of the world. Today, my cousins in Austria have a better life than I do.
FRIEDRICH SCHUMACHER, Burnsville
CLIMATE CHANGE
America must act now and lead other nations
Every American should be aware that we are at a unique moment when it comes to climate change. Last June, the House of Representatives passed legislation aimed at curtailing global warming pollution for the first time. The Senate is now considering versions of a similar bill. They all include the elements that need to be part of any effective and sustainable legislation.
If we act now, we have an opportunity to show global leadership and spur the growth of a clean-energy economy.
The time has come for the science and solutions regarding climate change to be at the center of our national conversation.
It's time to define our decade.
JEREMY AARON, ST. LOUIS PARK
tiza lawsuit
Kersten column on affidavits missed mark
Katherine Kersten's relentless and biased attacks on Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) in the middle of litigation ("Affidavits portray TiZA as threatening," Feb. 28) are a reckless attempt to prejudice the outcome of the lawsuit in the public opinion arena instead of the courtroom. It appears that Kersten's lack of faith in the fairness of our legal system prompted her to violate her journalistic duties by denying an equal opportunity to present both sides of the story.
SAMEH SHABANEH, WOODBURY
church and state
Governor's comments on God are revealing
Thank you so much for the recent exposure given Gov. Tim Pawlenty's radically religious fundamentalist approach to our government. Nick Coleman's Feb. 28 column ("Pawlenty the pious: God runs the show"), along with news reporting of our governor's statements that he will govern based on his ideas of what God wants, are finally shedding some light on this aspect of his character.
The previous administration of this newspaper apparently considered Pawlenty's faith a personal matter. If this had been more generally known, it is unlikely that his minority vote would have been sufficient to prevail over the other candidates.
Please continue the good work of bringing truth to light. God knows we need it.
DAVE PORTER, MINNEAPOLIS
