Op-Ed

As Congress gears up for the 2012 Farm Bill reauthorization, America’s dairy farmers need particular attention to safeguard their livelihood. Coming off recent catastrophic lows, we must reform our nation’s dairy programs so that prices are fair to farmers and reasonable to consumers.

​Education should not be the province of the lucky few, but the right of every American with skill and determination. Given the opportunity to better themselves through higher education, individuals can provide for their families and strengthen our nation.

“Slower Growth in Health Spending” (editorial, Jan. 12) misses the point when it suggests that the Affordable Care Act — a law whose ink was barely dry at the time — had a negligible effect on health care spending in 2009 and 2010. In fact, recent growth trends suggest that the law is particularly effective at reining in Medicare spending, which now makes up 15 percent of the federal budget. It does so with modest changes to provider reimbursements and by introducing efficient preventive care practices in anticipation of accountable care organizations."

​Since the end of World War II, employer-sponsored health care coverage has been exempt from taxable income. As a result, two out of every three non-elderly Americans are insured through their employer, making health care benefits a core pillar of compensation for the middle class and the foundation of America’s system of health care coverage.

​Rep. Darrell Issa's opinion piece "Health Care Law Will Deepen Deficit" (POLITICO, Aug. 22) reminded me of the late great Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famous riposte: "You are entitled to your own opinions. You are not entitled to your own facts."

Ten years ago, on a crisp blue Tuesday morning, 19 al-Qaida terrorists shocked the American conscience. They exploited gaping holes in our open society and killed thousands in the process.

​Bad ideas being touted by Washington lately are threatening to squeeze America's middle class to extinction. House Republicans continue to push a Medicare privatization plan that non-partisan analysts have determined would be a ruinous cost shift to patients and families, doubling out-of-pocket expenses.

​My father, Bob Courtney, was a lifelong Republican. He paid his bills on time and took pride in his self reliance. But when he fell ill from a congestive heart condition at age 82, he required frequent hospital care. I served as his power of attorney during those years, and as we went together through his tall stack of hospital bills, he turned to me and said simply, “Thank God for Medicare.”