Single payer would make red tape worse

Three items on the Opinion page on Aug. 11 deserve comment.

Two editorials offered somewhat contradictory solutions to the same problem. The first lamented — and rightly so — the red tape of modern medical treatment. The proposed solution, maybe, was one central payer, i.e. a government agency. The second pointed out the stifling bureaucracy of the Department of Motor Vehicles regarding driving license renewals.

The contradiction here is that the DMV is a government agency, a central issuer of driving licenses, and a very telling model of what happens when the government has exclusive authority over something that we all need.

The Department of Unlimited Medical Bureaucracy, the likely disseminator of universal health care should it ever be enacted by Congress, will make the DMV, public schools, IRS, etc., seem lean and efficient by comparison.

DUMB will require proof of identity, proof of citizenship, social security number, date of birth, mother’s maiden name, yadda yadda, for even the simplest of medical procedures, such as a flu shot. And we good citizens will accept the abuse and thank them for not giving us more of it!

Let us fix the DMV, and not make the present medical bureaucracy worse by turning it into a government agency.

The third item was a letter from Ken Houston of Albany comparing the late pundit Molly Ivins to Debra Saunders and suggesting the federal tax onus is on the poor and middle classes. This urban legend has been repeated so many times, it is often assumed to be true. Here are the facts, amigos:

In 2004 (the most recent data I could find), the upper 20 percent of American income earners earned a little over half of the nation’s income, and carried more than two-thirds of the tax burden. The bottom 20 percent earned just under 5 percent of the income and paid less than 1 percent of the taxes, according to the Congressional Budget Office in “Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2004.”

As they say in baseball, you could look it up. Saunders would look it up and cite her sources. Ivins preferred the urban legends.

Richard Chinn, Albany

Dog owners and South Shore: Beware!

Just a warning. The next time I see people letting out their dogs to do their business on South Shore playground without picking it up, I am going to write their license plates down and post them. It’s disgusting, gross and smelly. Kids play on that playground because it is for kids, not dogs to do their business.

How would you like it if someone brought their dog or cat to do their business on your lawn?

Carol Dixson, Albany