Shutdown isn’t done, just delayed
I received an email from my congressman here in Orlando the other day saying, “The Government Shutdown Is Now Over.” Let us all understand something right now. I replied as follows: It ain’t over till it’s over.
All Congress has done here is re-create the likelihood of yet another shutdown come the end of January. What then? Single out the same “essential” federal workers to go without pay for another 43 days? Ground more flights? Meanwhile, members of Congress (and many other parts of the federal government) still got paid during the “shutdown.” No one has ended anything. We have simply applied a Band-Aid to feel good over the upcoming holidays. This is not what America voted for last November… and no, the country is not moving in the right direction.
John Wayne Orlando
Protect the immunocompromised
In Florida, we care for a large population of immunocompromised rheumatology patients. These are patients who cannot simply “fight off” an infection. For them, an infection can mean hospitalization or lifelong disability. That is why continued expert oversight of national vaccine policy is so critical. Vaccine recommendations must remain led by physicians, scientists, and infectious disease experts, not political pressure or misinformation — because when vaccine policy stays evidence-based, our most medically fragile patients stay safer.
Equally urgent is protecting access to care for patients who rely on Medicaid. Many of these patients are low-income and already struggle to make ends meet. With rising inflation driving up the costs of food, housing, and medicine, losing Medicaid coverage could push them further into financial hardship and cut off access to essential specialty care. Therefore, I urge Congress to preserve access to care for patients who rely on Medicaid. Without it, we will see an increase in patient suffering, ER utilization, and long-term costs to our health-care system.
Protecting immunocompromised Floridians should be a bipartisan, shared priority. Science-based vaccine policy and Medicaid access must remain strong because many lives depend on it.
Jennifer Molina Orlando
Turn prisons to trade schools
The CEO of Ford Motor Company, Jim Farley, turned heads this week when he revealed he has 5,000 mechanic positions and over 1 million trade job openings in critical jobs that he can’t fill, some paying $120,000 a year.
Lets turn to the tragic state of our prisons. Studies show about 85% of the inmates leaving prison will return behind bars within nine years. Why? Because prisons do not teach enough life skills or trade skills.
The solution: Turn our prisons into critical trade schools.
No sensible person wants bad guys on the streets. We just want the ones rotting senselessly to have hope for a better productive life upon release.
Say what you will of President Trump, but he finds solutions. Through programs enacted in 2018’s First Step Act, he is relying on change agents — not fancy bureaucrats — who will turn our dying prisons into elite, skilled trade schools, giving prisoners trade training by virtual reality and AI. In return, prisons could pump out productive members of society and filling the millions of six-figure jobs waiting for them when they are released. Why go back to the dehumanizing prisons when you can make big money, join a strong community of workers and have an industrious (or fruitful) life.
My prediction is that our recidivism rate will plummet. Meanwhile, our governor dragged his feet on the issue, fretting about the optics of being soft on crime.
John L. Evans Winter Park
Biden was ‘unserious,’ too
A letter entitled “Trump administration is unserious” (Nov. 15) criticizes current administration leadership saying that some of them “are deeply unserious people.”
In my opinion, to suggest President Biden was a “serious” president ignores the elephant in the room: DEI. Biden was proud to announce that his Cabinet would be the most “diverse” in history. Huh?
I believe Kamala Harris remains the poster child for the folly of DEI hiring. One heartbeat away from the presidency. One short of having a single vote in a the Democratic primary or in their party’s convention.
Why do you call a president who seemed to openly chose his team based on race, gender and sexual orientation “sober and serious?”
Robert Anderson Winter Park
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