LETTERS: By any name, Obamacare would stink

To the editor:

Regarding Edward Dodrill’s letter to change the name of Obamacare (“Obamacare in need of new moniker,” Saturday Review-Journal), a rotten law by any other name would stink just as much

The only sensible thing to do is to take it out behind the barn, shoot it and bury it with repeal before it bankrupts and enslaves the country.

JAMES DOOLEY

HENDERSON

Fantasyland

To the editor:

The U.S. stock market is at an all-time high. American oil production is at the highest output ever. Manufacturing businesses are moving back to the U.S. because of technological innovation. Yet in his Sunday letter (“Socialist failure”), Herbert Burr claims our current president has ruined this country and turned it into “another socialist failure.” I guess if you dislike a president bad enough, you can enjoy living in Fantasyland.

ROBERT BENCIVENGA

HENDERSON

Medical school caution

To the editor:

The Las Vegas Review-Journal Sunday editorial (“Good medicine”) supported the proposed new UNLV medical school for Southern Nevada. However, caution might be in order until the full impact of Obamacare is known.

It is well-known that under Obamacare, doctors will be forced to accept much lower payments for services. It is anticipated that many doctors will retire. That should lead to a doctor shortage, and we shouldn’t assume this will cause a rush of new students to fill up the proposed new school.

There is a possibility that the business of being a doctor will never again be able to generate enough income to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans, plus the start-up costs for a new practice, or the cost to buy into an existing practice. In years to come, it wouldn’t be surprising to find that fewer people want to become doctors because they cannot make a good living at it.

With that in mind, before spending up to $100 million on the school, it might be prudent to see if there is any future demand to fill medical school slots after Obamacare has had its full impact.

JOHN M. MCGRAIL

LAS VEGAS

No room for hypocrisy

To the editor:

This old dude gets angry when he reminisces over what has happened to the Grand Old Party. Decades of staunch support for the party policies have made a sharp U-turn because of new politico-driven ideologies. I am far from one of the so-called “old white men” who supported the GOP. I do not practice faith, nor am I a fat cat, but I have always embraced the necessity of enhancing the well-being of the needy.

I also believe every person has the right to pick and choose how they live, love, pray, and make their own decisions about their bodies. Attempting to inject one’s personal ideologies or religious beliefs into local or federal government is a no-no. Some of my thinking is a more recent addition to my thought process, brought on by the degrading characteristics of a certain bunch of loud-mouth salespeople who brand themselves as the tea party.

The tea party members who are senior citizens are very puzzling, because they collect Social Security and Medicare, yet boast and vote against what helps them survive. Do they realize a vote here and there can change their lives and force millions, including themselves, into poverty?

Protecting the well-being of present and future retirees is a no-brainer. The old adage of cutting off your nose to spite your face appears to be in play for a number of tea partiers. There is no room in a democracy for hypocrisy.

DON ELLIS

HENDERSON