President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan would raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy to invest in things like health care, education and reducing poverty through a child tax credit. It would also let Medicare negotiate with drug companies for lower prices.
A Quinnipiac University poll in August found that 62% of Americans support Biden’s plan. Letting Medicare negotiate on drug prices is supported by 88% of Americans, according to a poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation in June.
Enacting Biden’s agenda will give the president and Democrats a clear victory they can run on in the midterms and future elections. Conservative Democrats need to consider which is more important: helping Biden succeed or serving their corporate donors and lobbyists.
— Mike Mosser, Chicago
Stop blaming survivors
Good grief. David Scheiber and Simone Ispa-Landa blew it — completely — in their op-ed on Oct. 2 (“Drugging and the college party culture: Why it matters and what we can do now“).
They offer tips to avoid drugging at a college party which include moving parties to sororities and parents talking to teens about avoiding fraternity parties. Again and again, these kinds of precautions put the onus on the victim, as if somehow the victim’s actions caused them to be drugged and sexually assaulted. This type of thinking has got to stop.
We should be prosecuting the men who perpetrate these crimes and putting a hard stop to this “boys will be boys, it’s all college fun” attitude. Parents, talk to your young men about respecting women and all people fully and completely because it’s the right and moral thing to do — and because doing otherwise will put a felony on their record and ruin any chances for success. Like so many women, I’m sick and tired of always adapting female behavior to avoid predators instead of having the predators correct theirs.
— Rebecca Palumbo, Tinley Park
Lower Medicare eligibility age
I was truly angered by Janet Trautwein’s opinion piece on reducing the age for Medicare (“Lowering the age for Medicare eligibility is a lousy idea we can’t afford,” Sept. 30), obvious self-preservation at work. I worked and saved all my life to retire early, luckily my husband works so I had health insurance through him. Well, he turned 65 and could get Medicare. I am 61 and almost fell off the chair to find that the most basic insurance would be $880 a month.
This is absolutely ridiculous. The insurance industry is broken. We are the only developed country that does not have socialized medicine. We don’t need these insurance companies to take our money for years, and then when you have a claim, they deny it anyway. All the paperwork, all the complicated codes, all the wasted time trying to figure out their explanations.
My friends in Canada and the U.K. cannot believe that you can risk bankruptcy by just becoming ill in this country. Lowering the Medicare age to 60 is the first step, and hopefully, Medicare-for-All is on the horizon. Stop the false narratives that it is not sustainable, that there is not enough money.
If the U.S. had $2 trillion to spend on an Afghanistan War, or to spend $47 billion yearly on foreign aid, I am sure we can find the money for Medicare. I also would gladly pay more tax to ensure I had health care because I am 100% positive it wouldn’t come out to $880 a month. But for now, I will cross my fingers and go without insurance until I can get Medicare. I have many friends who are in the same situation, and many who have never had insurance because their jobs did not provide it. There is a whole network of people who don’t have insurance and pay cash to doctors for appointments and tests. I truly hope this measure passes. The health care system was broken a long time ago when hospitals became profit centers with the help of the insurance industry.
— Irene Kazenas, Oak Brook
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