Letters: KC readers discuss government spending, Chiefs’ gin and Kansas cancer care

Spending spree

I am a high school student concerned with the level of government spending. We are spending money on a record scale — money that is depreciating because of the sheer amount of it circulating in the U.S. economy. If we keep at this pace, we will spend more in 2021 than in the entirety of World War II ($4.1 trillion, adjusted to today’s dollars).

The people of this country do not need that burden, especially after a pandemic that destroyed many small businesses, up to 60% of which may not reopen, by some estimates.

It is purely illogical to try and spend trillions after the U.S. economy took the biggest blow since the Great Recession of 2008. All of these choices have consequences as inflation is on the horizon.

This reckless spending is already influencing the American economy negatively. Proctor and Gamble is among the first major companies to start raising prices in 2021. It will not be the last, with ridiculous spending followed by the idealistic notion that nothing bad will happen.

- Ian Hein, Kansas City, Kansas

A bad endorsement

I recently found myself sitting at 39th Street and Broadway Boulevard, where I saw a billboard on the side of a liquor store advertising Tom’s Town gin, touting it as the “official gin of the Chiefs.”

I had to look twice to make sure I was seeing correctly. I was thoroughly disgusted to see the Kansas City Chiefs allowing their name to be associated with liquor. What kind of example does this set?

Given the recent horrendous accident involving a now-former member of the coaching staff that has changed forever the life of a young child and her family, it is even more egregious.

What were the Chiefs thinking when they allowed their name and image to be prostituted in this manner?

- Tanya Salyer, Kansas City

Why not build?

The GOP’s message to America is “no” to our national infrastructure upkeep, maintenance and upgrading. Crumbling highways, sewers, power grids and every manner of sanitary convenience we expect to support rural, suburban and urban life are not important to a few in the GOP.

There are two approaches to political discourse today, and the Republican Party is taking hostages while remaining mute on the expected ransom. The other political approach is what’s best for America.

To compete with China, the fight begins with a solid infrastructure and reliable services. Healthy people are the best possible infrastructure to defend America.

- Paul Comerford, Blue Springs

Out on his own

This is about a friend from the town I grew up in. Now living in Louisburg, Kansas, he is a retired paramedic, firefighter and lawyer, and his life is now on the line.

After he was diagnosed relatively recently with Stage 4 cancer, his appointments for chemo and radiation were canceled because he has fallen into the cracks of the uninsured — unable to get coverage or pay up front and ineligible for Medicaid in Kansas.

How is it possible to have been a lifelong taxpaying, contributing member of society and then arrive at a life-threatening health crisis needing to expend phenomenal energy to fight for one’s well-being but instead forced to fight a deaf bureaucracy, including the cancer center at the University of Kansas Health System’s Westwood Medical Pavilion?

The cancer center touts its nurse navigators and its holistic approach whereby they “treat the whole person, not just the disease.” I ended up living in Canada, where our system has so much room for improvement, yet I am alive, a cancer survivor, my health care never jeopardized by my capacity to pay.

How is it OK that a nationally recognized health care center has teams of specialized providers who tailor treatment plans and offer “financial counseling,” but only if a person pays in advance?

A life depends on doing better in Kansas.

- Jill Goldberg, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada