THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
For most of my 73 years, I have relied on daily newspapers (primarily The Virginian-Pilot) for facts and informed opinions concerning national and state issues. No more. Although I continue the read The Pilot, I have been very disappointed, frustrated and, at times, disgusted to realize that you report and emphasize statements by politicians without challenge or reference to facts.
Examples: The current discussions on the federal budget, far from being childish bickering, are about a major change in mission and size of the federal government.
President Clinton and the liberal Democrats supporting him want a government that attempts to solve every problem, satisfy every special-interest group and let future generations worry about paying the bill.
The Republicans are proposing small government, more freedom for individuals to solve their own problems and a government that pays now for the programs it chooses to carry out.
But you and the major news media continue to report and put in bold headlines that the Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich, want to cut Medicare, bankrupt the elderly, take away from the poor and give to the rich and cut school-lunch programs.
Your headline and lead report Dec. 18, 1995, was about cuts in Medicare. There are no cuts! I am sure someone in a responsible position at The Virginian-Pilot, at ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, etc., knows this. Some facts from C-Span, from David Brinkley, from responsible hosts in talk radio:
1. Proposed spending for Medicare goes from $4,800 per person currently to $7,100 in 2002.
2. Spending for the school-lunch program is increased by 5 percent and transferred to the states.
3. The federal bureaucracy, not what beneficiaries are to receive, will be reduced.
4. President Clinton had no budget proposal that balances the budget in seven years although he signed an agreement to present one using Congressional Budget Office numbers.
Are the Republican proposals really going to destroy Medicare? Are they really going to take away from the poor who work? Are they really going to take away school-lunch programs? Of course not. The cartoon on the editorial page Jan. 1 showing Newt Gingrich kicking Medicare down the steps has no factual basis and has no place in a responsible newspaper.
There seems to be overwhelming evidence that the majority of the thinking people in the United States want a balanced budget, a reformed welfare system and no more tax increases.
Let us have a more balanced presentation of the truth!
ROBERT M. OSBORN
Smithfield, Jan. 2, 1996 by CNB