By Peter Hass, East Brunswick
To the editor:
I read with dismay the article covering the forum held recently where the Democratic Candidates for the 12th District debated their qualifications for congress.
It seems to me that all four Democratic candidates are out of touch with "main stream" America.
A few examples – all four support the Affordable Care Act.
Does any one of them realize that fewer people are covered today by health insurance then before the exchanges were opened?
Do they not realize that the majority of newly insured were people whose policies were cancelled because of the act ("if you like your plan you can keep it!")?
Do they not know that, in Britain, more than 50,000 people now travel out of the country to receive treatment more readily than they can at home or that more than two-thirds of Brits earning more than $78,000 now buy private health insurance?
Do they not know that even in Sweden, the mother of all welfare nations, that more than 500,000 Swedes buy private health insurance?
All four candidates agreed that climate change is a "real and major issue facing the nation"?
Since the 1980’s, the climate change models have always overstated the degree that the Earth is warming compared with what is actually happening?
When the models fail to predict accurately, the modelers always come up with a new "model" to explain the variance.
I recommend that they read an article published in the Wall Street Journal on Feb. 16, 2014 titled "Why Kerry is Flat Wrong on Climate Change".
Recently, at least one of the Democratic candidates opined on same sex marriage stating that the government shouldn’t be able to keep her from marrying whomever she wanted, whether male or female.
Marriage between one man and one woman has been the staple of society for more than 2000 years.
It is the first institution of human society, the institution on which all other human institutions have their foundation, especially the family.
As another Democrat, President Lyndon Johnson once said: "When the family collapses, it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a massive scale, the community itself is crippled."
I would urge these candidates to focus on issues such as how to get people back to work again.
Even though the jobless rate has recently dropped, the "real" jobless rate (U6) including those who have left the workforce and those who are underemployed is at 12.3 percent.
This rate was 7.1 percent in January of 2000 and 9.7 percent in May of 2008.
Let’s hear the Democratic candidates talk about how they would reach out across the aisle to their Republican counterparts such as Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill did.
Let’s hear their ideas on deficit reduction and tax reform and not just disparaging comments toward anyone who disagrees with them.
