LETTERS: If it’s billionaire vs. billionaire, I’m sitting election out

SHARE LETTERS: If it’s billionaire vs. billionaire, I’m sitting election out
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J.B. Pritzker, right, and Gov. Bruce Rauner, left. Sun-Times File Photos by Max Herman.

If next year’s election comes down to Bruce Rauner versus J.B. Pritzker, I’m not voting.  I have not missed voting in 35 years, but I will not cast a vote for either man.

Why? I blame everybody. I blame the newspapers for reporting on the candidates’ wealth and declaring it news. How about giving equal coverage to the candidates running who don’t have silver spoons in their mouths?

I blame Springfield for allowing our campaigns to be financed with ridiculous sums of money. Billionaires give unlimited funds to their own campaigns, and precious dollars are thrown away every four years, even as state agencies that are broke fight to stay alive. How do you look a welfare recipient in the eye and tell them a TV commercial is more important than putting food on their table?

I blame the parties and the unions who have already endorsed Pritzker for one reason only: his money. It’s no secret that money leads, integrity follows.

And I blame the voters for not caring enough to research the candidates and decide on their own who gets their vote. We have already lost. If Rauner wins again, it’s four more years of gridlock. If Pritzker wins, it’s four more years of the Mike Madigan show. We are not a democracy if we allow the fate of 12.6 million people to be decided by a wealthy and influential few.

Scot Sinclair, Third Lake

SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes.

“Decent health care” is not enough

In the face of attacks on Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act by President Trump and Republicans in Congress, all of us must demand and work not for the low standard of “decent health care in Illinois” — to quote your Tuesday editorial — but a truly universal high quality health care system. We need national improved Medicare for all.

Our nation has the ability to provide all necessary health care to every person for less money than the current total of health care spending. Get rid of insurance company middlemen who add zero value to health care while making our system the most inefficient and expensive in the world.

Anne Scheetz, MD, Logan Square

Our Dear Leader blames all others

At this point in the current presidential administration, I have two questions. When will our Dear Leader Donald Trump run out of other people to blame for his failures? And when will his supporters accept the fact that they were fools to vote for this horrible liar?

Don Anderson, Oak Park

Where 50,000 jobs can help most

Your editorial about bringing Amazon’s second headquarters to Chicago was great, but if Mayor Rahm Emanuel really wants to help the city, he’ll tell Amazon to build in Englewood or a similar community. Put 50,000 jobs there and see if that improves things.

Bernie DiMeo, Wilmette

Metra is ready for Amazon

“I applaud your editorial “A Great City is Ready” as we submit our proposal to lure Amazon’s second headquarters. High on Amazon’s shopping list is public transportation. Like Amazon, we are the nation’s best at moving goods, too. We move workers.

Our mass transit system is the second largest in the country by passenger miles and we boast the lowest operating cost per mile of any  big city  transit system. The RTA service boards (CTA, METRA and PACE) provides more than two million rides each weekday, and we span six counties and cover 3,700 square miles. That’s larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Importantly, we also have had the fewest number of mechanical failures per mile in the past five years.

Like the many companies that have already moved their headquarters to our region, Amazon will depend on our mass transit, and we will be there!

Kirk Dillard, Chair, Regional Transportation Authority

Send letters to: letters@suntimes.com.

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