‘I am getting back what I paid for, not a free ride … “

To the editor:

In response to Robert Samuelson's Sunday commentary, "The AARP rules America":

So, a 40-million member organization (approximately 13 percent of the population) rules the United States? I seriously doubt that.

How about corporate America and the 2 percent of the population with the highest incomes? Don't they have lobbyists in Washington who can outspend AARP by millions?

The AARP did not get any of the billions of dollars in government bailouts to bolster exorbitant incomes and bonuses for the very people who got us into this mess.

As a senior depending in some part on Social Security and Medicare, I am glad there is an organization to represent me. I paid into the Social Security system all my working life with after-tax dollars. I also paid into the Medicare system with after-tax dollars. I still am required to pay a monthly fee for Medicare insurance and am taxed again on my Social Security benefits.

I resent having these payments referred to as entitlements. I am getting back what I paid for, not a free ride entitlement.

Obviously, Mr. Samuelson will decline to receive any Social Security or Medicare benefits when he retires and will never be a member of AARP, just like the large number of people with million-dollar incomes won't accept Social Security payments or utilize Medicare for their health problems. Sure, and I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Michael R. Stilley

Mesquite

Vehicle standards

To the editor:

Upon hearing of state Sen. Mike Schneider's proposed bill requiring garages to check vehicles tire pressure, I wonder if possible he may have too much time on his hands. True, properly inflated tires can save energy and improve gas mileage, but are there not more pressing issues that should be addressed?

I take my car to a mom-and-pop garage for repairs. They hire a few excellent mechanics. They bill at a high rate per hour, which is fine. But I don't want to be billed while they are checking my tires pressure washing my windshield or doing some other insignificant service I can easily perform myself.

A simple $2 pressure gauge that I use periodically solves the problem of improper tire inflation and I don't want unnecessary burdens placed on businesses, which helps no one.

So the senator should realize that silly mandates are merely a waste of time for the taxpayer, Legislature and businessman. It makes as much sense spending time on them as it does spending time sharpening pencils or waiting in line to buy donuts instead of holding committee meetings to solve the state's problems. Mr. Schneider should not insult the intelligence of those who elected him by trying to pass laws about vehicle maintenance standards.

Robert G. Latchford

Henderson

Had enough

To the editor:

While card-carrying union bullies and spoiled brats in Wisconsin and elsewhere demonstrate to retain their hefty pay, benefit, tenure and pension plans, the rest of us are ready to bring down our wrath on their heads, kick them all out of their tax-supported jobs, and replace them with people willing and ready to work.

This unionized mob has been protected by their Democratic tax-and-spend union bosses, President Obama and other Washington, D.C., liberal politicians for so long that they now actually believe that the public sector belongs to them. Well, it doesn't.

The heart of the American public has had enough of this insanity and will not take it any longer.

The game is up, and fiscal sanity must be restored. Perspectives must be reshaped. Those who have been forced to sacrifice -- and lost their jobs and houses -- are now demanding that this protected class, the unionized public worker, either join the real world or be replaced.

Enough is enough.

Bob Jack

North Las Vegas