Letters: What do the people want from government?

Re “What we, the people, want,” Editorial, July 4

Let me get this straight: The Democrats pass what used to be the healthcare plan championed by conservatives, and the problems with the law are, essentially, that “both parties do it.”

No other developed nation is interested in the slightest about the progress or outcome of the Affordable Care Act. Why? Because it will do nothing to change the fact that the United States is considered the poster child for how not to do healthcare.

We allow insurance companies to profit from our primary healthcare. While other countries such as Switzerland do have health insurance companies, they are restricted by regulation to nonessentials.

If you were looking for an example of “both sides do it,” it’s too bad you chose one where one side chose the other side’s solution — which happens to be the worst in the world — and the other side has no solution.

William Erickson

Chatsworth

If only Washington’s polarized politicians would take to heart your editorial’s apt insights.

Neither party is blameless, true. Republicans should grant that alleviating some constituents’ adversities won’t preclude prosperity for everyone else. Democrats should acknowledge that legislation ever more eliminative of constituents’ bad luck inexorably will eliminate good luck too.

Beyond politicians, these basic verities need to be understood by the electorate. The grandstanding that generates gridlock in Congress won’t go away until a groundswell of voters endorse pragmatic solutions over ideological entrenchment.

Verily, we’re all in this together. So we all need to work together.

Jo M. Alston

North Las Vegas, Nev.

The editorial sustains the myth that we have two political parties. In reality, both parties are the same. They both are funded by wealthy corporations, groups and individuals who expect political favors in return for campaign contributions.

If we stopped subsidizing the oil companies and Big Agriculture, we could more easily fund healthcare for everyone. If we stopped giving so much foreign military aid, we could more easily fund education, police and clean water.

Maybe next July 4 you could publish an editorial on how to return our government to one that actually serves the people.

Brent Trafton

Long Beach

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