LETTERS: Future of entitlements requires leadership

I was delighted to see the Review-Journal call out the presidential candidates in its March 9 editorial (“Busting the budget”), lamenting the fact that few are discussing the future of such critical programs as Medicare and Social Security with candor or detail. As the volunteer state president for AARP Nevada, and as someone who spent 30-plus years in aging services in the state, I couldn’t agree more that anyone who aspires to our nation’s highest office must lead when it comes to the future of these programs.

Take Social Security as an example. Hard-working Americans pay into Social Security year after year, and deserve to know how candidates plan to update the program in order to keep the promise to future generations. If our leaders fail to act, future retirees could lose up to $10,000 a year in benefits. Yet many of the candidates speak only in vague generalities or avoid the subject altogether.

AARP is challenging all candidates to lay out their plans for Social Security in detail, through a national accountability campaign called “Take a Stand.” We’ve launched a website (2016TakeAStand.org) that identifies which candidates have released plans and which have not, catalogs those plans and provides a real-time feed of statements on Social Security, so voters can decide who best shares their views and values.

In Nevada and across the country, volunteers are urging candidates to confront this critical issue. As the Review-Journal editorial aptly stated, “Any remaining candidate who isn’t approaching this oncoming freight train of a problem with the candor and rationality it deserves is a wholly unserious candidate.” We must hold candidates accountable — there is simply no time to delay.

I applaud the Review-Journal editorial board for reminding voters of what’s at stake this election year, and I look forward to continuing coverage of the issue.

Mary Liveratti

Carson City

The author is state president of AARP Nevada and a retired administrator of the Nevada Division of Aging and Disability Services

Coal health effects

I have been practicing medicine in Southern Nevada for more than 30 years, raising my family here. The negative health effects of coal on human health are well documented. The mining, preparation, combustion, storage and transport of coal pose significant problems.

Coal contributes to four of the top five causes of mortality in the United States. Coal combustion releases mercury, particulate material, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the air we breathe. The adverse effects of burning coal include asthma, bronchogenic carcinoma, impaired lung development in children, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, and because of the effect of mercury on growing brains, developmental delay in children.

Coal is no bargain when you count the impact of health-care costs on the countless people sickened from pollutants from coal-fired power plants.

Fortunately, Nevada will be completely coal-free next year. Here in the southwest, we have abundant sunlight, wind and geothermal energy to develop, with cleaner air, and better jobs. Gov. Brian Sandoval, Sen. Harry Reid and others are supporting clean energy and helping to bring those jobs to the Silver State.

The Luddites at the Review Journal will have you believe the headline on its March 7 editorial: “Cutting off coal a terrible policy.” That’s incorrect. Clean energy will be good for your health and will save you money. Good jobs and clean energy versus pollution from coal mining and burning? It’s an easy decision.

Frank J. Nemec

Las Vegas