Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/26110
6A – Daily News – Tuesday, March 1, 2011 Opinion D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Public pension cuts are about fairness, not anti- Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 unionism Editor: How childish the minority Democrats have behaved in Indi- ana and Wisconsin in their opposi- tion to a fair reduction of public employee pay and pensions to pri- vate sector levels. The Wisconsin unions are only being asked to pay 12 percent of their preretirement health insurance versus an average 27 percent for private sector work- ers. They are only asked to pay 6 percent of their income into pen- sions that earn an average 12 per- cent annual compounded interest versus the 6.2 percent that private sector employees are mandated to pay into the Ponzi scheme of Social Security that pays only 2 percent annual return on invest- ment. They are not asked to work until age 65 until drawing any pen- sion as private sector employees must do, nor or they required to cut their holidays from 11 to the 8 days of civilian workers, nor are they required to end subsidized health insurance during early retirement. They are not being asked to end their very generous pension pro- grams and substitute a 401(k) plan that private sector employees have had these past 30 years, where the employer only matches 5 percent of an employees pay. They are not being forced to use all vacation or sick pay during the current year, that private sector employees are required to do. The excess pay and benefits for public service lifetime jobs, pro- tected from termination, is not sus- tainable and needs to quickly end. This has bankrupted most states, including California. Private sector employees have carried on their backs the almost doubled pay and benefits of public employees. The Democrat National Committee should pay for these benefits since they were rewarded with a Democ- rat majority these past decades, from the practice of buying union votes and lobby funds, as the reward of excess pay and benefits. Joseph J. Neff, Corning Support Planned Parenthood? Editor: In response to Tina Dupuy's commentary “Why GOP should support Planned Parenthood,” I would like to submit that it is much more than a dollars and cents issue. It is a fact that more than half of Americans are opposed to abor- tion, which isn't surprising since Americans are a very compassion- ate people and the Right to Life is fundamental to our Constitution. Many of us abhore the idea that our tax dollars are being used to fund abortions. The fact is, most women who have an abortion eventually regret it. They often live with depression and shame for years, feeling that they can't share their feelings with others. Thankfully, CareNet and Rachel's Vineyard, through the Catholic Church, provide post- abortion counselling. Also, women who have had an abortion have a significantly higher risk of breast cancer. Many well-meaning people think they are helping a woman in an unplanned pregnancy by recom- mending that she get an abortion. This actually isn't in her best interest for the above reasons and more. When the crisis is over, after a woman has an abortion, she often finds herself under the heavy weight of realizing that she has destroyed her baby, which is much worse than putting the baby into a welcoming adoptive family or raising the child herself. There are many organizations If we were rich, I wouldn't be Your Turn working for one thing, and we'd move out of this liberal state so fast you would think we'd had a torna- do from Cottonwood to Arizona, Nevada, or maybe Colorado. We've always been in private sector jobs and self-employed. No million dollar pensions, benefits, etc. Half our pension money evaporated 10 years ago in the stock market, funds we contributed, not the tax- payer. that are very willing to help every step of the way. So let's not reduce the lives of our most vulnerable human beings, those still in the womb, to a money matter or what seems most practical at the time. I highly recommend Abby John- son's book “Unplanned” to get a more accurate picture of Planned Parenthood's true agenda. Margie Duey, Red Bluff Trickle down Editor: Jon Blankenship took me to task about my Feb. 8 letter. I was upset how low interest rates are on savings. He went into detail about the trickle-down effect if we rich people would not save money, but spend money. I see now his prob- lem is he thinks we're rich and make more money than he does, therefore we're the problem. Also, I watch the wrong televi- sion channels. I listen to all the sta- tions on the radio and watch many channels on television. Many, many people aren't even aware this country is falling apart. The money we put into savings a year ago came from a car and an old boat we couldn't afford insur- ance on anymore. Trickle-down? Thought with things so bad, we should save it in case we needed it. We've never taken a cruise, haven't had a vacation in 25 or 35 years, except for five days visiting relatives in Susanville. We live a simple life, our dogs haven't had their heartworm medicine for three months. This month, I'm buying it, it goes up a dollar every month it seems. More trickle- down? President Obama is again on the subject of high-speed rail. Our Amtrak continues to lose money, but he thinks we need high-speed rail. To all those jobs the Stimulus has created? In these times? One thing Mr. Blankenship is right about, the old saying “stupid- ity is doing the same things over and over again expecting a differ- ent result.” I wasn't going to reply to his letter, waste of time. My stu- pidity, at least he's right about something. Bernice Cressy, Cottonwood Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Suit you Commentary Doesn’t matter which side of the budget battleground you stick your rhetorical bayonet in, one thing we can all agree on is… our government is broke. Broke. Broke. Broke. Broke. Broke. Broke. Broke. Stone broke. Like a ceramic pocket watch in a gravel blender broke. Destitute. Down and out. Indigent. Flat busted. Hard up. Cleaned out. On the skids. Short of currency. Devoid of money. Insufficient funds. Nega- tive cash flow. Penniless. Pauper- ized. Poverty stricken. Impecu- nious. Decidedly un-prosperous. Financially strapped. Insolvent. Not currently considering any lux- ury acquisitions like gum. Resi- dents of Church Mouse City with moths the size of pterodactyls fly- ing out of our wallets. Dirt poor without the dirt. Tapped. It's not like there isn’t any money. Plenty of people, corpora- tions and foreign countries are swimming in it. The question is: how do we get us some? Answer: We take it. The American Way. Utilize those 110,000 civil service workers in the Department of Jus- tice wasting away while accessing Internet porn pretending to rewrite regulations nobody will read when they could be suing people. And settling out of court. For hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of money. And repeat. This country is an injured party and should act accordingly by exacting retribution. No more Mr. Nice Guy. We got lawyers. Let’s use them. Tell people they will pay through the nose if they dare screw with the US of A ever again. Because we are about to file suit for redress en masse. A couple of suits. We get our suits to file suit on their suits. Which will suit us just fine. Sue Rupert Murdoch for felo- nious malfeasance for distilling all political discourse into “Us good- them bad.” Sue McDonald’s for child endangerment and threatening Homeland Security by producing a generation of kids too fat to fight. Sue China for malicious intent by encouraging our insatiable con- sumerism. Sue Madison Avenue for violat- ing simple common human decen- cy by propagating the stereotype that kicking a man in the crotch is amusing. Sue the British to stay in practice. They’re known for settling. Sue BP for illegal dumping, gross negligence and disorderly conduct. Sue Egypt for copy- right infringement by poaching that whole democracy thing. Sue Halle Berry for mental cruelty. Sue France for con- tempt. Sue John Boehner for criminal impersonation of a pumpkin. Sue Toyota for unlaw- ful assembly. Will Sue record companies for willful desecration of the English language. Sue "The View" for abusing national noise abatement stan- dards. Sue the Birthers for contributing to the delinquency of the stupid. Sue Las Vegas for usurping fed- eral authority by imposing taxes on the mathematically challenged. Sue Mexico for failing to main- Durst Raging Moderate sons. Will Durst is a San Francisco- based political comic who writes sometimes.This is an example. tain a habitable domicile. Sue BP again for sabotage and looking at us funny. Sue Glenn Beck for engineering an intel- lectual Ponzi scheme resulting in an epidem- ic of cerebral bank- ruptcy. Sue the Kardashi- ans for reckless disre- gard of human dignity and societal vandal- ism. Sue Donald Trump for the unlawful destruction of whatev- er endangered species pelt is stapled to the top of his head. Sue BP once more, for unlawful flight and running away from the scene of an accident. Sue Joe Biden for the same rea-