Entitlements have helped people at every level

I have read a lot about entitlements lately in The Gazette.

Boeing feels entitled to build a new tanker that will perform the obsolete mission of refueling bombers bound for the Soviet Union. Having failed to bribe its way or compete against Airbus, it decided to lobby its way to a contract.

Physicians' Clinic of Iowa feels entitled to the middle of a main street and tax breaks from the city to build a medical behemoth. Genencor, recently purchased by Dupont and whose chief executive officer made

$14.1 million last year, feels entitled to $500,000-plus for building an addition.

Gov. Terry Branstad feels entitled to his pension and his salary. Factory farms feel entitled to build anywhere in the state, paying the grand rate of 18 cents a minnow for the inevitable results of their sloppy manure-handling procedures. The military feels entitled to more than 750 bases in 105 countries, damn the cost. Billionaires feel entitled to pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries.

Now that the politicians and the media have decided “entitlements” must be cut, they look to the young, old, poor and sick to bail us out. How dare they feel entitled? They only contributed with every paycheck for a lifetime with no loopholes, tax shelters or lobbyists. These benefits were earned, promised, and should be paid. Rein in the real entitlements, the ones that go to the already well-off.

Bob Yeats

Mount Vernon