Health insurance and personal priorities

In a recent Review-Journal commentary, David Barnes explained why he believes young Nevadans are avoiding participation in the Affordable Care Act. He wrote that the average 27-year old Nevadan will face average premiums of $247 in 2017. He claims that premium is unacceptable for millennials because they want a health plan “tailored” to their “unique needs” and Obamacare does not provide for that.

I have one question for Mr. Barnes: How much are your total monthly expenses for your cellphone, Uber rides, video streaming, fast food, tattoos, piercings, gym membership and energy drinks?

I do not suggest that any of those things are bad. My question is asked simply to determine where his priorities lie and whether or not he expects the rest of us to pay for his lack of insurance when he winds up in the county hospital for an unexpected catastrophe.

Robert Bencivenga

Henderson

Secession plan

I came here in 1942 and attended the 5th Street Grade School. I learned to swim in Las Vegas creek where the Paiute kids had put a dam across the creek to make a swimming hole. In all these years I never dreamed that I would see the day when a New York billionaire could buy so much of the Nevada vote. However, it has come to pass.

I think we should forget about the illegals crossing the Mexican border. What we need to do is deport the Californians and New Yorkers. They are ruining our state.

Californians are now talking about seceding from the Union. That would be great, except they may have a clever plan. When they secede, they will declare war on the United States and then surrender the next week — and we will have to feed and take care of them forever.

Who says socialism never works?

Marty Bush

Boulder City

Prove it

In his Nov. 23 column (“Voter ID is the sure-fire way to stop election fraud”) Wayne Allyn Root states, “It’s my opinion that massive voter fraud is rampant in America. The worst case scenario may be right here in Nevada.”

Mr. Root suggests that voters are “voting multiple times in different precincts,” are “using false names,” are “using the names of dead people or people who have moved” and that “illegal immigrants” are voting. He “dares” Democrats to prove him “wrong.”

Unfortunately, Mr. Root has it backward. It is not anyone’s responsibility to prove him wrong. It is Mr. Root’s responsibility to prove himself right.

Indeed, if voter fraud is so “massive” and “rampant” (particularly in Nevada, as Mr. Root suggests), then it should be easy for him to prove it. As a starting point in such a quest, I “dare” Mr. Root to discuss in his next column the details of a single proven occurrence of voter fraud in Nevada.

His readers are waiting.

Steve Danning

Las Vegas

Wrong choice

So the city of Las Vegas now has a name for its hockey team, the Golden Knights. I have always thought that the Golden Knights was the title of the U.S. Army Parachute Team.

Wrong choice, in my mind.

Jack Jackson

Henderson