ECONOMICS: Something to consider

Re: Gaede’s “Prop 2 Secret” and Fisher’s “Economic Checkup” (of Oct. 10)

The assertion that expanding Medicaid is improving health care is a false promise that insurance is health care. Like the Affordable Health Care Act (ObamaCare), it will increase the bureaucracy of insurance and not improve health care. Recall, no one was able to keep their doctors or their health insurance without a significant increase in cost. It is not the right thing to do, secret ballot or not.

As for the “Economic Checkup,” let us recall that the “76 months” of growth was in the stock market, mostly related to increased printing of currency. That growth did not increase the GDP more than 3 percent and in the last 12 months. The GDP increased only 1 percent. We were told this is the “new normal” and jobs lost to other nations would never come back. Unemployment remained high; welfare and food stamp users did not decline. Real income for the middle class did not increase. Now minimum wage is rising as employers compete for workers and unemployment is the lowest in 40 years.

P. MAHLOW

Hayden