Waste, fraud and abuse
This letter to the editor is in response to the letter titled, “Make funding efficient again,” that was published in the April 2, 2025, edition of The Voice in response to the column titled, “From New Baltimore to neuroscience: Why science funding matters,” that was published in the March 12, 2025, edition of The Voice.
Is there really waste, fraud and abuse? The abuse is Trump and Musk dismantling our government.
To the person who said that we have to be logical and not emotional with our criticism of Trump and Musk, damn right I am emotional when the country that I love is being destroyed.
Consider that the whole East Coast is ship building; the south is NASA; the West Coast is aircraft building; the middle of America are vehicles such as tanks and other war vehicles.
All of the military machines have very large factories where the U.S. government sends checks which are cashed by the workers and spent in the communities.
That is a lot of money put into the economy which stabilizes the whole country.
Musk is unemploying so many people that the money will not get into communities and the country will be destabilizing for all of us.
We have 11 nuclear powered aircraft carriers; 13,000 military aircraft; 5,184 out of 11,700 global satellites; 480 ships, of which 299 are combat ships; 71 submarines.
If Musk really wanted to save money, he could not build one of any of those but that is not what he is doing, he is dismantling the government so that we can have king Trump.
Now that is cold hard logic; we must build all that equipment or our economy would collapse even more than it is.
A doctor wrote in about how the Trump administration is hurting science and she was reprimanded because she did not mention waste, fraud and abuse. So again, is there really waste when the government funds all the ships, aircraft, etc., to keep the economy going? And again, the fraud is Musk and Trump.
We have a great country which can be refined but not with a chainsaw.
— JOHN A. PETTINATO, Memphis
Residential roads in ill repair
This letter to the editor is in response to the article titled, “Hackel very optimistic road funding will increase,” that was published in the April 2, 2025, edition of The Voice.
Hackel’s first statement. The start of construction of a new road bridge near the end of the South River Road in Harrison Township will impact access to what could be the most popular boat ramp in the county. Macomb County has long been a “donor county,” Hackel noted, by receiving back only 61% of the funds county drivers sent to the state.
The phrase “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” is a famous quote from George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” used to satirize the corruption of ideals and the rise of a new elite, even within a seemingly egalitarian society.
Unlike residents living in Harrison Township near a boat ramp that Hackel is utilizing some of the 61% of the funding from the state to replace a bridge. Residents living in Chesterfield Township on Mallard Drive on a county road that is religiously reinforced by Chesterfield’s Supervisor Kersten, “Mallard Drive is Macomb County’s responsibility to maintain.”
Residents living on Mallard Drive have long been a “donor,” receiving back zero percent of the funds Mallard Drive residents/drivers send to the state and allocated/prioritized by Macomb County to “fix the damn roads.”
Mallard like many of the residential roads in Chesterfield Township have been in ill repair for over a decade, that’s over a period of 10 years of Macomb County neglect.
“All townships are equal, but some townships are more equal than others.”
I am not very optimistic. What does it take to get “equal” recognition to fix/repair a road with potholes large and deep enough to swallow my dog?
— PAUL S. LAFATA, Chesterfield Township
Letter needs clarity
This letter to the editor is in response to the letter titled, “On the road to affordable healthcare,” that was published in the March 19, 2025 edition of The Voice.
In her letter, former state Rep. and current Chesterfield Township Trustee Pamela Hornberger discussed affordable medications that are affected by “PBMs.” Unfortunately, she didn’t tell us what a PBM is (it’s a pharmacy benefit manager). Wouldn’t clarity be the first objective of a politician promoting an idea?
More importantly, she fails to address, in my opinion, the major cause of high prescription prices in the United States. That would be the caps put on those items by other countries, such as Canada.
The combination of those limits, pharmaceutical companies natural aversion to limiting profits, and the United States government’s neglect in protecting the interests of Americans means that we pay higher prices to subsidize the medications of citizens of other countries (similar to the way Americans disproportionately paying for Western Hemisphere defense helps “allies” to provide “free” healthcare to residents).
It is interesting that Ms. Hornberger points to a potential meeting between President Trump and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) as possibly playing “… a key role in … lowering prescription drug costs.”
Sure, and the fox is the perfect guardian of the chicken coop. The hopeful counterweight is Mr. DOGE: DJT. He should be able to resist PhRMA’s attempt to lower prescription costs while holding themselves harmless, but what about Congress? Will it be able to rein in PBMs, who are closely associated, when they may be beneficiaries of campaign donations, gifts, promises of future employment, etc.?
I fear that lower prescriptions without concomitant raising of caps in other countries, and/or some financial hit, will only mean a hidden tax to pay for them. How? Maybe overpriced purchases of unnecessary outdated (but not expired) medicines that will sit in warehouses before eventually being dumped. Or quickly approving new products, while putting the government on the hook for any lawsuits. Or subsidizing the prescriptions with even more debt, fooling people into thinking that they’re paying no more, while their dollars are worth less.
Three possibilities, and I’m not even part of PhRMA. What can they come up with?
Let’s hope that any new legislation purporting to make prescriptions “more affordable” is processed through the DOGE corruption detection machine.
— CARMAN CONFORTI, Chesterfield Township
Social Security cuts not happening
President Trump had said he will not touch Social Security or Medicare. That is a Democratic rally point. Democratic voters need to talk to Washington-elected Democrats and work with President Trump on eliminating OT pay, no tax on tips and no tax on Social Security.
That is reaching across the aisle in bipartisanship and putting more money in the people’s pockets. That is what the Democrats could run on in 2026 if they really cared about their constituents.
People don’t need checks from Washington just to buy a vote that (becomes) another tax to pay.
— JOHN SHIBBISH, Chesterfield Township
