Our politicians are now ready to make a deal in funding Medicaidif they are able to raise the tax on tobacco to their liking.

Really, there is nothing wrong with that, except they need tocharge the tax on drinking. Tobacco users are getting a raw dealbecause a group has come out to do away with tobacco. The lie thatmore deaths are attributable to tobacco each year than anythingelse is based on deaths where the cause was not necessarily known.Alcohol, on the other hand, is shown to cause more deaths.

If the career politicians really were serious, the tax would befairly distributed between all vices, including gambling. The liethe public was fed in getting gaming into the area of it fundingeducation is another instance of the career politicians selling thepublic out for the best dollar.

Does the gaming industry being taxed at less than half that paid bya worker mean that our politicians think twice as much of thegaming industry than their constituents?

The best thing for Medicaid is a complete overhaul, as there aremore riding the program that don’t deserve to than those whodo.

The last stats I saw showed that one in four of Mississippians ison total disability. If the overweight population is a problem, thenumber on disability is a catastrophe, and I think one day soon wewill have a fat tax because it is becoming fashionable to lambasteanyone overweight. If a person can walk the aisles of Wal-Mart allday, they are able to hold a job and pay their own medical bills.If they can stand hours protesting not getting the benefits fromMedicaid, they can hold a job.

I know there are those that are really worthy and who are notabusing the system, and I’m sure that I and most everyone elsedoesn’t want them to lose them – only those that are able-bodiedbut too lazy to work.

My son and his wife both work to make a living, and he is outbefore daybreak and home after dark. He is not able to ride in thefashion I see most with the disabled tags on cars on the highway.If one can afford the big, late-model vans and luxury cars, theyare able to afford their own medical insurance.

It is time for the public to hold the politicians responsible torepresent their interest and quit raising and wasting our taxdollars. They should be able to hold office for one term and notmake a career of it. If this were the case in Washington andpoliticians were retiring on Social Security instead of themillions they have voted themselves, they would be working togetherto make the system solvent.

The holy Bible says we should care for those that cannot care forthemselves. It also says that if a man will not work, neithershould he eat. We can ride the shoulders of our fellow man now, butthere will be a day of reckoning for those that did and those whoenabled them.

Edwin V. Case,

Brookhaven