LETTERS: Gruber, Buffett cash in at our expense

To the editor:

Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economics professor, has recently been exposed as not only a key architect of Obamacare, but also as a key spin master to help ensure the health care law’s passage. It won’t be hard, according to Mr. Gruber — imitating a classic snake-oil salesman — to convince the “stupid” American voters to accept the lies and deceptions peddled by Democrats and the Obama administration to get the health care bill passed.

Transparency and time for vigorous debate? No, we have to pass the bill so that you can see what’s in it. But what would happen once the bill was passed? Did Mr. Gruber think that we stupid voters would never notice that we would not be able to keep our doctors and that co-pays and deductibles had skyrocketed? Or that the number of the previously uninsured barely equals the number of those forced into plans with higher costs and fewer options, or those left with no plan at all?

The Nov. 15 Review-Journal had two new stories and two new affronts to the “stupid” American voter, both with deep roots connected to funding sources for Democrats and the Obama administration. First, the House voted with an overwhelming bipartisan majority to pass yet another Keystone XL pipeline bill (“House approves pipeline project”). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., finally relented and gave that bill a hearing and vote in the Senate as a last-minute life preserver to Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., though the bill fell one vote short of the required 60 for passage.

Second, we learned that NV Energy has asked the state Public Utilities Commission to reconsider its October decision rejecting the solar power plant on the Moapa Paiute reservation, demanding action by Dec. 23 (“Utility seeks Moapa approval”). This power plant is strongly supported by Sen. Reid and Rep. Steven Horsford.

All Nevadans should note that prominent Democratic Party contributor Warren Buffett and his company, Berkshire Hathaway, are involved in both the Keystone pipeline and the NV Energy issues. Berkshire Hathaway owns both BNSF — the railroad company that presently transports the vast majority of Canadian oil that would flow through the Keystone pipeline — and NV Energy.

Does any reasonable person think that Mr. Buffett does not have a dog in the pipeline race, and that the fortunes of Berkshire Hathaway don’t trump any smoke-and-mirrors excuses such as environmental concerns over the Keystone project? And that this same big contributor, through his stake in NV Energy, doesn’t intend to cash out on the backs of ratepayers for a power plant that we don’t need?

How stupid is the American voter? Ask Mr. Gruber.

JIM DAVIDZIK

LAS VEGAS

Nothing wrong with PERS

To the editor:

Regarding the recent commentary on the Nevada Public Employees’ Retirement System (“GOP should rein in Nevada’s burdensome state pension plan,” Nov. 14 Review-Journal), the only thing state government has studied more than our tax revenue system is the pension system. The governor-approved study in the 2013 legislative session showed the system to be working properly. The director of the system has testified many times in the Legislature supporting the current system.

Those who believe PERS needs reform are misleading the public into believe the system is failing. Those who oppose PERS always compare our system with other states. Unlike other states, our pension system replaces Social Security. The state of Nevada does not pay the federal government Social Security taxes, thereby saving billions of dollars.

Placing public employees into 401(k) investments would require state and local governments to pay federal employee payroll taxes. This huge expense would bust the budgets of state and local governments or would require increasing taxes. Pension reform is really a form of pension destruction in disguise. Because of this, pension reform is a nonstarter.

DARHYL VANN

LAS VEGAS

Obamacare victims

To the editor:

I have read of the many Nevada residents who paid premiums for health insurance, then discovered that they had no coverage. Where did that money go? Someone deposited those checks into an account or cashed them. That should be simple to trace. Will these victims ever recover the premiums they paid for nothing? Why wasn’t Xerox required to return any of the millions it was paid when it failed to deliver a product that worked?

CAROLYN BOYLE

LAS VEGAS

Intelligent voters

To the editor:

A front-page article reported that Rep. Steven Horsford — beaten in the midterm elections — is considering running for Congress again so he can feed at the public trough (“Horsford weighing comeback,” Tuesday Review-Journal).

His history of personal debt responsibility is anything but sterling.

MIT professor and Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber was wrong when he stated voters are stupid. In the case of Rep. Horsford, voters showed their intelligence and voted him out of office.

GERET KRITZER

LAS VEGAS