Your editorial on Jan. 27, "Cut where the money is," focused on health care reform as the place to start for reducing the deficit. It was a place to start, but now reform seems at best temporally impossable. Taxpayers might have more confidence in our elected officials at all levels of government if they sincerely demonstrate a little "belt tightening" along with the rest of America.
Whether elected or hired into service, all levels of our government workforce generally have pension systems that do not align well with retirement plans commonly provided for private sector workers. In the past, government wages and salaries were pitifully low, and a promise for a modest stipend in later years was perceived as an affordable expense. Not anymore.
Recent examples of these "defined benefit pension plan" disproportionate payouts created outrage toward Mayor Shelia Dixon's $83,000 annual pension for life, and Baltimore County Councilman, Vincent J. Gardina, age 53, and soon eligible for his full $54,000 salary for life.
The money is everywhere, not only within our broken health care system. Faith in our elected officials would be improved if they initiated and applied cost control within their own ranks. Or maybe they would prefer early retirement?
Larry Woody, Odenton