Lakeland Times
6/24/2014 8:17:00 AM
Writer responds on Walker vs. Burke
To the Editor:
I read Mr. Best’s Letter to the Editor and found it a bit puzzling. I guess the point he is trying to make is that Walker deserves reelection because he used to brown bag it to work and lives in a modest house. On the other hand, he criticizes Mary Burke because she is rich, likes to travel and has lots of houses. It sounds like he’s saying that being rich is somehow a character flaw and those with wealth are unworthy and thereby unfit to run for office. What a novel way to assess politicians.
Based on this, I’ve got to conclude that Mr. Best must have voted for President Obama, who rose from genteel means in a single family home rather than Mitt Romney, who inherited his father’s bucks, by his own admission has no idea how many houses he has and, while on a hardship assignment in France, may have brown bagged it while schlepping baguettes back to his mansion in Paris.
James Zamrazil
Boulder Junction
6/24/2014 8:17:00 AM
Writer responds on Walker vs. Burke
To the Editor:
I read Mr. Best’s Letter to the Editor and found it a bit puzzling. I guess the point he is trying to make is that Walker deserves reelection because he used to brown bag it to work and lives in a modest house. On the other hand, he criticizes Mary Burke because she is rich, likes to travel and has lots of houses. It sounds like he’s saying that being rich is somehow a character flaw and those with wealth are unworthy and thereby unfit to run for office. What a novel way to assess politicians.
Based on this, I’ve got to conclude that Mr. Best must have voted for President Obama, who rose from genteel means in a single family home rather than Mitt Romney, who inherited his father’s bucks, by his own admission has no idea how many houses he has and, while on a hardship assignment in France, may have brown bagged it while schlepping baguettes back to his mansion in Paris.
James Zamrazil
Boulder Junction
Lakeland Times
6/9/2014 8:23:00 AM
Writer supports Mary Burke for governor
To the Editor:
What has happened to the 62,776 people who were kicked off BadgerCare because of Walker’s “re-structuring” – even $1 above the Federal Poverty Level and they are on their own?
How many have obtained insurance coverage through the private insurance industry on the Federal Insurance Exchange or how many have re-joined the ranks of the uninsured and are forced to use emergency room care when the evitable health crisis arises, resulting in rises costs for the rest of us?
Can some of these 62,776 Wisconsinites be “too rich in Walker’s world” but “too poor in reality” afford the out-of-pocket costs for co-pays and deductibles charged by the private insurance companies?
Many letter writers insist that private business is so much better at managing money and resources so those co-pays and deductibles must be lower? Other letter writers say that someone willing to work full time at minimum wage ought to be paying his or her own way instead of being on the dole or lining up at the public trough. A 40 hour-per-week at minimum wage of $7.25 grosses $13,920 annually, and that’s a big $2,250 above the Federal Poverty Level cut-off of $11,670 per year. Smart budgeting and corner-cutting can swing that – no problem, right?
Governor Walker has had no real experience in the business money world and ignores common sense in managing government money. Governor Walker could have expanded Medicaid coverage with 100 percent federal dollars at no cost to Wisconsin citizens. Yet, Governor Walker, unlike a majority of governors, veered off into his familiar political world of “look-at-me-the-tough-decision-maker” and added $100 million to the next two-year budget only to cover fewer people.
Mary Burke has real business sense and it’s time we had a Governor like that instead of a career politician always looking ahead to the next office a level up.
Kay L. Hoff
Minocqua
6/9/2014 8:23:00 AM
Writer supports Mary Burke for governor
To the Editor:
What has happened to the 62,776 people who were kicked off BadgerCare because of Walker’s “re-structuring” – even $1 above the Federal Poverty Level and they are on their own?
How many have obtained insurance coverage through the private insurance industry on the Federal Insurance Exchange or how many have re-joined the ranks of the uninsured and are forced to use emergency room care when the evitable health crisis arises, resulting in rises costs for the rest of us?
Can some of these 62,776 Wisconsinites be “too rich in Walker’s world” but “too poor in reality” afford the out-of-pocket costs for co-pays and deductibles charged by the private insurance companies?
Many letter writers insist that private business is so much better at managing money and resources so those co-pays and deductibles must be lower? Other letter writers say that someone willing to work full time at minimum wage ought to be paying his or her own way instead of being on the dole or lining up at the public trough. A 40 hour-per-week at minimum wage of $7.25 grosses $13,920 annually, and that’s a big $2,250 above the Federal Poverty Level cut-off of $11,670 per year. Smart budgeting and corner-cutting can swing that – no problem, right?
Governor Walker has had no real experience in the business money world and ignores common sense in managing government money. Governor Walker could have expanded Medicaid coverage with 100 percent federal dollars at no cost to Wisconsin citizens. Yet, Governor Walker, unlike a majority of governors, veered off into his familiar political world of “look-at-me-the-tough-decision-maker” and added $100 million to the next two-year budget only to cover fewer people.
Mary Burke has real business sense and it’s time we had a Governor like that instead of a career politician always looking ahead to the next office a level up.
Kay L. Hoff
Minocqua
Some Cry Foul Over Rapidly Rising Propane Prices
By Senator Kathleen Vinehout
January 29, 2013
“I’ve been in business for 36 years,” the propane man told me. “I believe this is simply price gouging.” The propane retailer’s wholesale price went from $3.19 to $5.29 a gallon in just a few days. I wanted to know why.
At first, I heard the usual “supply and demand” story: a late planting season meant high moisture grain drew down propane supplies. Indeed, propane use to dry grain was four and one-half times larger this past harvest than a year prior.
January-like weather during the first of December meant increased propane demand earlier in the season. As one industry representative said: “It’s simply a matter of economics 101 – supply and demand.”
But things were not as simple as they seem.
“The propane industry has some responsibility here,” one man told me. “We knew reserves were dangerously low going into the harvest season,” said another.
According to Bloomberg News Service, propane stockpiles are the lowest since the government began keeping records in 1993.
I spoke those in the propane industry, listened to constituents and congressional staffers and did some digging in industry and government publications. I learned several “man-made” actions contributed to a shortage of propane.
In mid-November, Kinder Morgan Inc. shut down its Cochin pipeline carrying propane from Canada to the Midwest. The company kept the pipeline down until late December to install pumps used to reverse the flow of gas from south to north.
The company plans to sell a lightweight petroleum product to Canada to mix with heavy crude oil. The complete reversal of the pipeline was scheduled to happen next summer. However, I heard from retailers, the company upped the start-up date to mid-February – permanently removing a critical route transporting propane to the Midwest.
Many in the industry told me rail lines – another route of transporting propane to the Midwest – choose large volume contracts like coal, grain or sand – over smaller lots like propane. I learned of one retailer who ordered nine rail cars of propane last fall and still had not taken delivery. Trucks also are in short supply.
“I can buy propane for $1.50 a gallon in Texas,” one Alma man told me. “But I can’t find a truck to go pick it up.” A Pepin retailer said, “There are 186 trucks lined up [in Mont Belvieu, Texas] to get propane and they can only fill three an hour.”
The Wisconsin Propane Gas Association recently sent a letter to lawmakers explaining the shortage and the rapid rise in prices. They closed the letter with the following: Be warned, the situation in 2013-14 is not the result of a “perfect storm,” but rather due to structural flaws in the industry.
The U.S has no strategic reserve for propane and no restrictions on the export of propane.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the exports of propane and propylene have increased five and a half times in the past two years. Just in the past year exports nearly tripled.
Industry officials knew about the Cochin pipeline shut down (and the plans to reverse the line no longer delivering propane to the Midwest). They knew about the high demand for fuel to dry down grain and help cope with the very early, very cold winter. Still exports remained at the nearly triple (over last year) high figures all throughout January.
Reuters recently reported: "This is definitely an issue that will come to the surface as the fallout (of the shortage) becomes more well known," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC, a hedge fund. "The industry has been caught short, a lot of consumers are going to ask the question - why are we allowing this?"
Finding a solution involves action by the industry and government. We need an “At Home First” U.S. policy that creates a strategic reserve of propane, limits exports in times of domestic need and makes sure companies are not price gouging.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley recently requested the Federal Trade Commission “remain vigilant in overseeing the propane market to prevent anti-competitive behavior or illegal manipulation, and ensure that any supply shortages are not created artificially.” Senator Grassley has the right idea.
Kathleen Vinehout represents Wisconsin’s 31st Senate District.
Lakeland Times, Letters to the Editor. 2012
Letter to the Editor - Lakeland Times
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Letter to the Editor - Lakeland Times
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