Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/35906
4A Daily News – Thursday, July 7, 2011 Opinion Conspiracy 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 Editor: When I was in high school one of the required reading was a book called "None Dare Call it Conspir- acy." I can't remember the author. I read recently that if something happens in government it was not an accident, it was planned. Con- sider this. All unemployment insurance 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. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. 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 extensions end the end of this year. The feds will no longer give any more extensions. Whatever the state gives is all you are going to get. I have seen different figures for how many people are out of work — anywhere from 15 million to, by the end of the year, 20 million. Now I know that is arguable but the fact is there will be, for all intents and purposes, an American middle class destroyed. So, if all those people are not buying any- thing or paying taxes, how is that gap going to be filled? The Dream Act would pretty much give many illegal aliens citi- zenship or a way to citizenship. Now all those in the "jobs that Americans won't take" are now paying taxes and Social Security. We just change places. Jim Burgess, Red Bluff Food giveaway Editor: I am retired on disability, living on a limited income. I looked for- ward to the June 30 tailgate food giveaway since I saw an article in the June 16 paper. I was disappointed it was not the “tailgate” giveaway I expected. All of the boxes were prepacked by those putting it on. I thought “tailgate” meant we might have some choice of what we were get- ting. When I got home with my box I was again disappointed. This is what I received from the “successful food giveaway.” Three plastic bags of lettuce. One sealed bag, I’m guessing 3 or 4 lbs., of chopped iceberg lettuce. One sealed bag of chopped leaf lettuce and one grocery bag with a head of Romaine type lettuce. I received 11 packages of microwave pop- corn. I received two loafs of french style bread and I received a bag of plums. That’s it. That is what I waited two weeks for. Although all that I received was edible, I don’t consider any of it “food.” Like the three woman in the July 1 news story touting the success of the food giveaway, I was disappointed we received nothing to make a meal out of. I took my entire box to the Sal- vation Army. They said they had just received quite a load of the exact same stuff. Maybe I should have fed the ducks with the “food” I received from the “Successful tailgate food giveaway” that made the front page of the Daily News. I wonder how many of those people standing in line were as disap- pointed as I was? David McBath, Red Bluff Harassment Editor: I am going to turn myself in for intoxication outside of my home as I am going leave outside of my gate and am turning myself into the police department. I have been harassed to the max. When was the last time you went to the farmers market and the city boys asked you where you have been and what you are doing and have you had anything to drink or left you're ID close to the sidewalk? I was reaching for my front gate — my dog in hand. If you've had any similar expe- riences, let's get together. I am so sick of being harassed by law enforcement — people who are sup- posed to protect us. Phyllis Manuel, Red Bluff Recreation Editor: Does anyone care about our trails at the soon to be defunct Lake Red Bluff Recreation Area? Bikers, joggers, walkers, strollers, roller bladers, squirrels, jack rab- bits, deer and an occasional fox, share the great outdoors along 4.5 miles of trails. And now that the gates are low- ered — creating Lake Red Bluff for the last time — gravity sends the water needed to irrigate 150,000 acres of crops. Without having to listen to the noisy irritat- ing pumps, the trail system is a wonderful, peaceful, natural resource for outdoor activity. However, vegetation overgrowth has caused the trails to become more and more narrow. Perhaps the bushes and trees that used to be trimmed along the slough every year so that 30,000 people could enjoy the boat races are now left alone so that the Sacramento River can return to its natural habitat, blah, blah, blah. But what do the migratory salmon, powerful enough to permanently Your Turn raise the dam gates, have to do with the Shasta View Trail, which used to be maintained and now is so neglected that a jogger and bicyclist can barely pass in places. We not only lose the lake, we lose the nice trail system too? Does anyone know who used to maintain the trails? U.S. Forest Service? Red Bluff High School R.O.P. students? Red Bluff Recreation Area employees? If funding is the issue, it's too bad some of the $3 billion the Department of the Interior received from the American Recovery and Rein- vestment Act couldn't have gone to whoever used to maintain the trails. After all, the Red Bluff Fish Passage Improvement Project, which is receiving $109 million in ARRA funds, is the single largest Department of Interior project in the nation. Woo-hoo, thank you Obama. Way to jumpstart Red Bluff's economy. Why don't we hire some people to clear the trails, thereby creating some of the jobs that never materi- alized, falsely promised from the fish passage project. Well, at least our Paradise- residing city manager still has the trails in Bidwell Park where he can walk, and Tehama County's chief administrator still has the Sundial Bridge and Sacramento River Trail in his hometown of Redding. Who needs the Red Bluff Recreation Area trails? Certainly not the poor little "brand chal- lenged" town of Red Bluff. Cathy Hubbard, Red Bluff 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. The "Drop and Roll" effect of Obamacare Commentary Once upon a time, people's hands were busy putting food on the table and they were too busy or too proud to consider extending those same hands out to the government for a hand- out. But that time has long passed, and time is running out before America the Great turns into America the Nanny State. Let this Conservative go on record: When used properly, welfare can be a force for good for those most in need. Unfortu- nately, we have an administra- tion, whose failed (0-97 in the Senate) 2011 budget bulged with middle-class handouts meant to expand the welfare state. Democrats are bent on making addicts of otherwise perfectly capable citizens to the designer drug of taxpayer dol- lars. In an attempt to make this addiction permanent, the administration rolled out Oba- macare. In 2008, anxiety over a fail- ing economy and soaring costs of healthcare helped to propel Obama to the White House, but, three years later, and after the passing of Obamacare, the anx- iety has morphed into anger - as the truth about this poorly con- structed bill unfolds to find that it is nothing more than a compi- lation of mistakes, bloopers, paybacks and blunders that fix healthcare about as well as handing a bandage and bottle of blood thinner to a gunshot vic- tim. The most recent "blunder," which involves dropping people from the middle class and rolling them onto the welfare rolls, will not only add billions of dollars of cost to the bill; it will throw millions of middle class retirees into the Medicaid program. Medicaid was created to help the most needy in our society. Medicare actuary, Richard Foster, told the House Budget Committee that a provi- sion in Obamacare did not con- sider social security benefits when calculating eligibility for early retirees, effectively brand- ing those making up to $64000 per year as destitute. Talk about the destruction of the middle class. Most troubling is the White House admits Democrat law- makers knew this provision was in the bill and passed it anyway. Come hell or high water, the Democrat-controlled Senate and House insisted on ramming Obamacare down the throats of Americans against our wishes, and did not care that it would apply more pressure to state budgets already buckling under- neath the weight of exorbitant Medicaid costs. Additionally, Obamacare adds an estimated 16 million to 20 million low-income childless adults to Medicaid programs that will be initially funded entire- ly by taxpayers. Although it was their desire to have a Euro- pean style socialized healthcare system, Democrats created some sort of "Franken- stein" system that is bloated, clumsy and solves health issues like a wrecking ball helps to remodel a home. In this case, the US econ- omy is a house of cards. It seems like only yesterday Obama promised that everyone could keep their own healthcare plans, nor would he write any healthcare plan into law which added to the deficit. But, that was yesterday. Here is what's happening today: The release of a McKinsey & Company survey found that due to Obamacare regulations, some 1300 employ- ers will drop their employer health insurance plans, forcing as many as 78 million workers and families into Obamacare. A Susan Brown Price Waterhouse Cooper sur- vey found half of all employers "indicated they were likely to change subsidies for employee medical coverage." In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Former Gover- nor Phil Bredesen, warned that dropping employer coverage and forcing employ- ees into taxpayer- funded Obamacare will become "very attractive to many employers, both pub- lic and private." "The problem with socialism," said Mar- garet Thatcher "is that you eventually run out of other people's money." The sand in the hourglass is getting low. Either America's flirtation with socialism will run out of sup- port, or America will run out of money. Susan Stamper Brown is an op-ed columnist, motivational speaker, military family advocate and grief counselor who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. she can be reached at susan@susanstamperbrown.c om.