Letters

Responding to a letter from Congressman Nick LaLota: Your letter claims $31.1 billion of fraud and waste in the Medicaid program because of improper documentation.

If this were adjudged to be caused by physicians, having worked for a doctor who I knew benefited from illegal documentation practices, one might agree. (I got myself fired.) But the direction seems to be claiming that the recipients are lying and cheating the system.

The “cure” for insufficient documentation is to require more documentation? I cannot think of a snappy rejoinder. It just does not look like a solution. Where is the revamped, updated, simplified and sane program to help immigrants legally enter the country and thereby easily have all the needed documentation?

The $6,000 income tax deduction, which will increase the number of Social Security recipients who give nothing back in income taxes, undermines the long-term security of the program. The program needs serious change in the form of redirected revenue to continue to function for us and for the next generation. This is not a question. Everyone acknowledges this.

The ridiculous proposition is that we will grow ourselves out of debt and all our problems while undermining democracy and the environment, attacking the entire world, all of our major institutions, and our much needed immigrant labor force.

Is the entire nation on drugs? I am not.

Amy Paradise

Hampton Bays