To the editor:
Obamacare has now become Obamatax.
When the Supreme Court saved Obamacare they did so at the expense of exposing this as purely a collection of taxes. There are six taxes on Americans who already have health insurance, and you can be certain that your insurance is going to cost more to pay for Mr. Obama’s tax hikes. Wasn’t this supposed to reduce the cost of our health insurance?
Do you realize that if your child needs braces it is considered a medical device and you will be taxed on this? Medical devices such as wheelchairs or a stent for your heart will be taxed.You thought drugs were expensive before? Obamacare will now tax your lifesaving drugs. Obamacare raises taxes on making new drugs by $2.3 billion a year. And we will pay it.
Mr. Obama promised that you would be able to keep your insurance, but if you have a Health Savings Account this will be hit with new tax penalties. Don’t be crazy enough to believe that you will be able to buy over-the-counter nonprescription drugs pre-tax with your HSA because you cannot anymore. That flexible spending account parents use to care for a special needs child will now find part of their own life savings taxed by Washington. If Washington should decide that the insurance you have is considered too good or too much they will tax you because Mr. Obama said so.
Obamacare will now tax charitable hospitals. The operative word here people is charitable. Middle-income Americans will be hit by seven taxes. I guess we can chalk this up to another broken promise by Mr. Obama to never raise any form of tax on anyone earning less than $250.000. When someone becomes very ill with high medical bills you have always been able to deduct this from your taxable income if they were above 7.5 percent of your total income. Mr. Obama thinks this is being too nice to sick people and raises it to 10 percent. He must believe that taxing sick people will lead to fewer sick people.
Should you not believe any of this do your own research. Read the bill, because Nancy Pelosi certainly did not. There is a reason according to Rasmussen polling that over 53 percent of American people still do not want Obamacare and want it repealed.
A vote for Obama will guarantee more than $5.5 trillion in higher taxes over the next 10 years. You will see the return of the marriage penalty and the per-child tax cut falls from $1,000 to $500. Capital gains will jump to 23.8 percent and the tax on dividends triples. The cost for the first year of Obama’s reelection is $500 billion. A vote for Mitt Romney and a Republican Congress will repeal all 20 Obamataxes and extend all the lapsing tax hikes so Congress can reform the tax code without a tax increase.
If you are better off now than you were four years ago or will be in the next four then the choice you have is clear. Our children will be so in debt to this country that their take home pay will not afford them the standard of living we have been used to. More of their paycheck will go to the government and what will they be left with? They will be better off taking from the government than becoming successful citizens as we have done as a nation in the past.
Jeralyn Levasseur
Bradford
Disappointed in Haverhill leaders
To the editor:
It was sad to see the letter by Joe Tucker recently, but he is awfully correct on some points. I am very disappointed at the Haverhill mayors, councilors, and community leaders. No group has embarrassed us more than the School Committee with Shaun Toohey, Scott Wood, etc.
Tucker is correct on many points. He mentions the lack of floral decorations downtown. Only a couple of businesses care to dig into their pockets to beautify their storefronts. Why hasn’t anyone come along to do something like adopting a storefront? All destination cities contract with someone to keep their city looking pretty. Newburyport has floral arrangements everywhere!
Tucker is also right when he says there was never a good architectural plan for Haverhill. Waterways attract people. Haverhill perpetually blocks the river not with one high rise at the entrance to downtown but another across from the infamous Woolworth building. Nothing has also ever been done to beautify Ginty Boulevard.
By now an all out fight to tear down the Woolworth building or renovate it should have happened. This mayor cannot take all the blame. Mayors run into obstinately stubborn city councilors.
Tucker says that dogs are off leash around Winnekenni Castle. Walking my dog one day, an off leash dog ran at us, scared my dog who pulled her collar off her head leaving me with only collar and leash. My dog ran and leaped over the edge into the lake resulting in my panicking and jumping in the water to grab her!
This mayor loves to brag about just about everything. You see it in the way he comments. Others have done the same. What is there to brag about, the few restaurants downtown? I visited Salem, MA recently and what a show! There must have been about 30 restaurants dotting a square mile or two. Pinkering Wharf, the pedestrian walkway, the Peabody Essex Museum and the beautiful Hawthorne Hotel. I spent the entire day there! Haverhill has little to brag about and should be more ashamed.
Tucker was also correct when he says there is not a single art gallery in Haverhill. Yet there is a sign that says “arts district,” Huh? Plus our business district consists of cheap dollar stores, a Goodwill, a Building 19 and a Market Basket.
I’m glad Tucker told it like it is. Haverhill missed its opportunity decades ago. It’s not going to recover. There’s nothing worse than a bad reputation. We can thank the perpetual names of leaders we see recycled over and over again on the City Council and School Committee, none of whom have taken up the challenge to change this city. Fiorentini, Ryan, Michitson, Quimby, the list is endless.
George Leonidas
Haverhill
Thanks for Classical Academy
To the editor:
As summer vacation draws to a close and my son is approaching his sophomore year at Haverhill High School’s Classical Academy I feel compelled to write about this unique and wonderful program. Aside from Phillips Academy in Andover, I do not think my son could have received a better high school education than the Classical Academy.
The teachers are dedicated to the rigorous standards of learning like no other public high school program I have seen. My son worked hard last year and was challenged and motivated in mathematics, Latin, biology, history and the arts.
I am so grateful to the founders of this vision based in classical learning. My son has set his sights high for college and I truly believe that he is being well prepared for whatever field of study he wishes to pursue.
Thank you to all the dedicated teachers at Haverhill High School. Education is truly the great equalizer!
Karen Kravits
Haverhill
