Letters - Tuesday

MAKE ‘EM PAY

Developers aren’t paying for costs of building

I read Gazette columnist Barry Noreen’s Jan. 27 column, “Retired prof’s advice doesn’t seem to grow on Springs,” about Albert Bartlett’s address on growth. Bartlett, apparently in contrast to our developercontrolled City Council, doesn’t believe that growth is all that good and, in fact, doesn’t pay for itself.

Do any of us believe, with all the current problems with pollution, deteriorating roads, traffic congestion and water concerns, that this growth is good for the area and pays for itself? What about Colorado Springs Utilities projecting a community of 800,000?

I chuckle at the comments made by one of the developers of the Banning Lewis Ranch when he said the ranch looks like a great development location with the beautiful scenery and view of the mountains. With 180,000 new residents with their autos, and all the associated businesses, big box stores, restaurants and industries to support such a huge development, I’d like to for him see how much of those mountains will be visible through the smog when he’s finished.

Rather than spending taxpayer money on consultants for ideas on how to improve images and how to attract more growth and industry, I’d be more pleased to see the City Council use a few dollars to fund a trip for all members to hear Bartlett’s talk at Colorado College on Feb. 28.

Bill Offutt

Colorado Springs

GETTING IT RIGHT

Conservatives fudge facts on SCHIP program

Conservatives, such as letter writer Janice Taylor, are so repulsed by the idea that all children in America deserve to be covered by health insurance that they have to make up facts to bolster their specious arguments (“Let’s be sure government isn’t making things worse,” Jan. 27). Taylor asserted that 20 percent of State Children Health Insurance Program recipients in Colorado are adults. Her assertion is questionable on its face.

According to the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, there are 57,985 children enrolled in the program in Colorado. There are also 1,496 adults enrolled in the program. All of those adults are low-income pregnant women. Those pregnant women account for about 2.5 percent of all people covered by the program.

Government is not the problem; dishonesty is the problem. Conservative leaders have lied to their followers and to America about what government does. America will be better when we rely upon true facts and not the bogus information that emanates from the right-wing hate machine.

Steve Waldmann

Colorado Springs

PUMMELED BY NOISE

TV commercials turned up too loud

Some television commercials are so loud, they rattle the speakers on my TV and knock items off nearby shelves. It seems that the sound is louder at night than it is in the daytime

I called Fox 21 and asked if they could lower the volume on the commercials. I was told that they had no control over the volume because that was the way the commercial was recorded. If this is true, why don’t the other TV stations have the same loud commercials? I thought the FCC had a rule that prevented excessively loud commercials. Does anyone else object to this ear-piercing loudness?

LaQuita Allison

Colorado Springs

BAD MEDICINE

Health care proposals will backfire on state

I want to thank The Gazette for its strong editorial against the illconsidered plan by the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform (“Health care reform: It’s a joke,” Jan. 31). Their proposed system of mandatory health insurance already has been tried in Massachusetts and is failing. Costs there are already more than three times what was originally predicted, and the Boston Globe reports that it is expected to “cut payments to doctors and hospitals, reduce choices for patients, and possibly increase how much patients have to pay.” The California state legislature has also just rejected a similar plan because it will cost too much.

These government-imposed plans violate the rights of individuals to freely choose what health insurance plans are best for them, and, as a result, lead only to rising costs and rationing. If Coloradans value their lives and their health, they will also reject this deadly proposal.

For more information on genuine free market health care reform for Colorado, please see www.WeStand-FIRM.org.

Paul Hsieh, M.D.

Sedalia