Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Field Hearing

On Monday, 20 June 2011, our Congressman Dr. Dan
Benishek and Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle
held a hearing in Iron Mountain related to the
accessibility and quality of healthcare for veterans
residing in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Our reporter Ben Smith attended in his official capacity
as well as because of his personal interests.

Ben delivered a note from me to Dr. Benishek's people
containing information as follows:

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Dear Dr. Benishek:

As much as is possible, please try to get the following
changes passed by the federal government.


1) Remove ethanol from gasoline in order to reduce
food prices and federal subsidies.

2) Change the regulations that mandate more than
one blend of gasoline for the continental US.

3) Change the "cost of living index" (COL) used to
determine Social Security increases to reflect the
realities that seniors living in the US today face.
It appears that the COL presently used eliminates
cost of fuel and food, thus for the past 2 years our
SS payments have effectively declined while the
gross amount has remained constant and Medicare
deductions have increased. That SS is a problem
isn't the fault of the recipients, but of bad planning
by those who have been in charge of administering
the system for the past several decades. It needs
to be made right for everyone.


Thank you for your attention.

Bill Vajk

Publisher of Ironcountydoings.blogspot.com
a publication registered with the Library of Congress

Bill Vajk