LETTERS: Legislature renders voters meaningless

To the editor:

A tax is a tax is a tax, regardless of the editorial and columnist Steve Sebelius’ so-called explanations in the June 2 Review-Journal (“Legislature beats expectations by passing budget;” “The Republican contrast behind big tax vote”). Gov. Brian Sandoval sold us out, sending us down the drain, along with the so-called safe Republicans. Again, our votes mean nothing in this state, as this Legislature just showed us.

Mr. Sebelius wrote, “Gov. Sandoval’s plan was never about pouring money into a broken education system.” Are you kidding me? We are now going to put more money into a system that is so far gone that if it were a business, it would be bankrupt.

And thanks to our friends in Carson City, the Department of Motor Vehicles will make permanent the fees that should have expired June 30. And then they go and throw a $1-a-pack tax hike on cigarettes. When will this all stop?

Legislators say your vote counts. What a joke you people in politics play on the voters in Nevada. Never again will I vote in any elections. The system stinks.

DAVE MESKER

LAS VEGAS

Sad tax plan

To the editor:

I saw that the Assembly passed Gov. Brian Sandoval’s tax plan. What a sad situation (“Assembly OKs big tax plan,” June 1 Review-Journal). Gov. Sandoval and the Republicans in the Assembly and Senate were elected by a groundswell of conservatism. What do we get for our support? A wink and a giant step toward the left.

When did our leaders lose their will to do their job? All this bill will do is deepen the current recession and drive business away.

I am a recent retiree who decided to live in Nevada for the weather and cost of living. Reconsideration is in order. I take no benefits from the state and spend a good deal of my retirement here. I believe my money would be better spent in a more conservative state, where I will not be forced directly or indirectly to pay for the governor’s RINO (Republican in Name Only) agenda. This year, I will vote with my feet.

MATTHEW WHITTAKER

PAHRUMP

Privatize the VA

To the editor:

Kudos on an excellent editorial on another well-intentioned federal program that is fraught with waste, fraud, abuse and failure (“VA incompetence,” May 26 Review-Journal). There seems to be competition among several government agencies such as the IRS, VA, EPA, Department of Education, etc., on which can do the worst job at the greatest expense.

I discussed the same subject with Rep. Joe Heck in 2014, during one of his periodic telephone town hall meetings. I informed him I was qualified to speak on a solution, having been a registered nurse, holding an MBA, serving in the military and being a hospital administrator for three corporations — a career totaling more than 45 years in the health care industry.

My solution was to simply disband the VA program and privatize services to a company modeled after something such as Kaiser Permanente. Mr. Heck’s defense of the VA was it did four tasks well: burn units, prosthesis for amputees, post-traumatic stress disorder treatment and preference for employment of veterans. I agree with him on these issues.

However, all of those tasks could be incorporated into a service contract with the private sector. Further, it could be done with greater patient satisfaction, more efficiency and for less cost. Also, in the private sector, contracts can be terminated or modified, and people can be fired and even prosecuted. What a concept.

GARY TURNER

HENDERSON

VA doctors

To the editor:

I have a doctor friend in Minnesota who, when finishing his internship at the University of Minnesota, went to work for Bethesda Naval Hospital. After one year, he left because there is no longer a distinction between doctors and nurse practitioners in any government medical facility. He felt that his medical degree had become nothing more than a meaningless title in this day and age of “assembly line medicine,” a term I heard from a VA doctor here in Southern Nevada.

It is a shame that medical care that provides for veterans has deteriorated to such a degree that doctors feel that they are no longer needed in the VA system. Nurse practitioners are qualified for that specific title, but they are not doctors and should not be used as replacements for men and women who are discarded because they cost more than what Veterans Affairs wants to pay.

LA VONNE ARMBRUST

LAS VEGAS

Henderson annexation

To the editor:

I read that the city of Henderson wants to annex four square miles of Eldorado Valley (“Growing city eyes nearby desert,” May 31 Review-Journal). The area in question is in a natural asbestos zone. The Nevada Department of Transportation had to do a study of the area before the Interstate 11 Boulder City bypass could be built. The soil was found to have high asbestos content, and measures are to be taken to prevent health issues while building the freeway.

Now the city of Henderson wants to build homes and businesses in that same area? And with our valley water supply shrinking on a daily basis? The greed in the Las Vegas Valley runs rampant. Can you say “ghost town”?

GERALD MOCK

HENDERSON