Buffalo News readers let loose on Bush

[devilgrrl]

http://buffalonews.com/opinion/everybodyscolumn.asp

Bush answer on drug imports is difficult to swallow

When asked during the second presidential debate why he blocked the reimportation of safer and inexpensive drugs from Canada, President Bush replied, "When a drug comes from Canada, I want to make sure it cures you and doesn't kill you." Huh? Did I miss something? Is there an epidemic of Canadians dying from bad prescription drugs?

Tom McGinnis, director of pharmacy affairs for the Food and Drug Administration, said that he couldn't come up with one case of an American dying or even becoming ill from prescription drugs purchased in Canada. Similarly, Health Canada had no information of any American becoming ill or dying from these medicines. These are U.S.-made medications sold to Canadian pharmacies at greatly reduced prices.

During the 2000 campaign, Bush said that getting low-cost drugs from Canada "made sense." I'm afraid his latest answer on prescription drugs is a bit hard to swallow.

Mark Coughlin

Kenmore


Sandwich' generation left out of Bush plan

"The coming battle over Social Security" in the Sunday Viewpoints section said that President Bush was best suited to save the system. I have read a lot about the war, the economy, outsourcing, No Child Left Behind, etc., but realized I had read very little about Bush's plan for Social Security, so my interest was piqued.

The article was about 2,000 words. Surely I would learn a lot about Bush's plan from this lengthy article. But no. It boiled down to one sentence: "We must strengthen Social Security by allowing younger workers to save some of their taxes in a personal account." That's it; the rest was filler. Nineteen words out of 2,000. The writer noted that "the president hasn't yet embraced a specific reform plan," which seems to mean "his plan is 19 words long."

He left out a small detail: While the younger workers are building up their own "personalized" Social Security plan, what happens to the millions of retired people who were hoping there would be money to draw out? Too bad, they are the new sandwich generation - born soon enough to pay into Social Security for 40 years, but too soon to have their own "personalized account." What does Bush plan to do with these people?

David Irvin

Williamsville



Bush has mishandled the Office of President

It is increasingly clear that President Bush's mishandling of the war on terror, his disregard for families of servicemen in his cutting of veterans benefits and his utter denial that he has not utterly failed in his campaign 2000 goals proves that Sen. John Kerry, a candidate running on a platform of hope and renewal and the protection of constitutional freedoms, is a patriot while Bush is just a patriot act.

Jeffrey Dean

Hamburg

[aquart]

1. "Bush is just a patriot act. " !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another Dean makes a great point!