Plenty to worry about when it comes to Constitution

To the editor:

It just makes me laugh at my fellow Republican friends when, following the ObamaCare ruling, they scream how the sky is falling on our constitutional rights in this country. Really?

Where was all this screaming and crying when the Military Commissions Act – which deals with the treatment of detainees and enemy combatants – was passed back in 2006? I’m sorry, but that – along with the Patriot Act and every other bill supporting the Drug War – has shredded the Constitution more than health care ever did.

Besides, my Republican friends, if you’re so worried about how much more ObamaCare might cost, how about a little trimming of the federal budget in the name of ending the Drug War, bringing our troops home and not bombing every Third World nation that glances at us the wrong way? Then maybe we can afford to cover every single man, woman, and child with health insurance.

Jonathan Lentz

Las Vegas

What tax?

To the editor:

During much of his campaign for president and during his entire time in the White House, President Obama has been assuring us that he would never raise taxes on anyone making less than $200,000 per year ($250,000 for couples). Now, in order to declare ObamaCare constitutional, Chief Justice John Roberts has determined that the mandate to buy insurance is indeed a tax. Most of the 30 million people who do not buy insurance today make well under $200,000 per year.

This new tax will hurt a lot of people and probably set back any economic recovery. If people have to buy insurance or be penalized by the IRS, then they will not buy something else – cars, movies, goodies, clothes, etc.

President Obama has again made it very clear that we cannot believe anything he says. He will say anything if he thinks that he can get a few more votes – and then he will flip-flop if he decides that some other position will gain him a few additional votes.

Walter F. Wegst

Las Vegas

Headed south?

To the editor:

My wife and I just finished watching 1944’s “Passage to Marseilles” again. It was a wartime movie. Something about the movie bothered me this time. Then it hit me, about halfway through.

For decades, I knew the Free French despised Marshal Petain, but I could not appreciate the gravity of that hatred. I am aware that history repeats itself, and I started to recognize the similarities of the Vichy government and our present administration. Petain rewrote his constitution to suit his needs and gained complete control of Vichy France. As I went down the list of his subordinates, the names reminded me of Holder, Reid, Pelosi and much of our U.S. Supreme Court.

I see the security of our nation jeopardized. About 12 million foreign nationals are in this country illegally, and President Obama grants amnesty to 400,000, at least. I have watched our industries disappear. Shipyards, steel mills, rail passenger service, our manufacturing base are pretty much gone, and now our coal-fired steam plants are being shut down.

We are in a desperate state. Most unsettling? Most don’t care. I fear the direction our nation is headed.

Wayne P. Brotherton Sr.

Amargosa Valley