Letters to the Editor

Investigating fraud is a dangerous job

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

What is the big deal? If someone tried to send me into a high-crime area to investigate Medicare fraud (which I understand is big business these days), I'd take a gun — maybe two. You better believe some of the people being investigated have guns.

Perhaps those opposed to this should hang out with the investigators. Does someone have to get shot to realize how dangerous this job could be?

Chris Blanton.

Richmond.

The payroll tax cut needs to expire

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Congress is at it again. The so-called Social Security payroll tax cut (it's really a tax holiday) will expire at the end of February, and Congress is once again at an impasse.

If the economy is actually improving, do we really need the payroll tax to be reduced from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent for the balance of the year? The cost to the Social Security Trust Fund will be an additional $133 billion. We have already raided the trust fund for nearly $27 billion for the two month compromise extension that was voted on at the end of December.

While this short term tax break might help middle-class families now, the long-term effects of the revenue loss to Social Security will outweigh the gains. I say revenue loss because the only conceivable way that Congress will agree to pay for this will be by some accounting gimmick. Remember how Congress was going to save Medicare money by cutting back payments to doctors? That accounting gimmick has never happened.

In the long run, the middle class, me included, will be better off without this election-year feel-good tax break.

Brian Glass.

Glen Allen.

Buchanan's words need to be taken carefully

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Your editorial, "From the Right" cites Patrick Buchanan's Middle East view.

Buchanan describes Israel as a "warmonger." Its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been stating in Western and Arab media for more than a year that he is "ready to go to Ramallah" to meet Mahmoud Abbas for peace talks.

He dismisses Iranian rhetoric as empty threats. The most recent bellicosity is from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni's strategist. His document, "In the name of Allah, Iran must attack Israel by 2014," provides the legal and religious justification for the annihilation of Israel and the Jewish people. Based on other statements by Buchanan, he may not be concerned about this eventuality.

If you Google "Pat Buchanan quotations" you will learn that over the years he has consistently voiced ideas beyond the pale on many subjects, including homophobia, racial intolerance, anti-semitism, gynophobia and anti-democracy.

It is commendable that your editorial pages are a platform for divergent views, but please choose "essential questions" from reasonable analysts.

Sidney Kessler.

Richmond.

Cervical cancer can be prevented

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

One of the most preventable cancers is cervical cancer. January was National Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. Every day on our laboratory computers, dozens of women's Pap smear results return with bold letters stating phrases such as: atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, atypical squamous cells, high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, atypical glandular cells not otherwise specified. If you're unfamiliar with these phrases and you're a woman, thank goodness you've never received them. They are abnormal Pap smear results. Without treatment or continual follow-ups, these findings could turn into cervical cancer.

As a proud Planned Parenthood family planning clinic employee, I feel it has become too common that these results often lead to biopsies and thereafter, removal of some of the cervix itself. I'm tired of seeing mothers, sisters and daughters suffer through unnecessary emotional and physical pain. We need to create a world with less suffering by providing our children with the vaccine that has been shown to fight off some of the higher strands of the human papillomavirus (HPV), the primary cause of cervical cancer.

This isn't about personal beliefs, it's about making the world a better and healthier place. Let us honor the cervical cancer survivors and remember those who aren't with us today.

Jenessa Lopez.

Richmond.