Who’s Addressing Soaring Prices?

The following letter to Senator John McKinney has been received for publication.

Dear Senator McKinney:

I received your flyer today and while it touched on a few critical areas, it completely avoided any reference to retirees and senior citizens, a class of people who are being driven out of their Fairfield County homes due to runaway taxes, high medical costs, and sky-high fuel prices. Why aren’t these critical areas being aggressively addressed?

It seemed that after President Bush got his Energy Bill passed that something good was going to come from it, such as lower fuel costs. No such thing; the major oil companies still can’t get to the banks fast enough with their sky-high profits. A couple of oil company executives were called to Washington for a hearing, they supported their pricing, cried poverty, and smiled all the way home.

I understand that several states have reduced their gasoline taxes to help the public, but not Connecticut. There was some talk in Harford about doing this, but nothing ever materialized. I believe New York State reduced their gasoline tax resulting a 20 to 30 percent per gallon reduction. Someone also suggested the implementation of an excess profit tax on the oil companies — God forbid if we dared touch this sacred ground. I had my oil tank partially filled last week, it cost me over $900 for a medium-size house in Newtown. Please tell me, Senator McKinney, how can we continue to live with these uncontrolled price increases?

I haven’t even touched on medical costs. When I first retired several years ago my supplement insurance premium was under $10 a month. Today its over $80 with no end in sight. Many people are putting off buying their prescriptions because they just can’t afford them, despite a so called new Medicare bill, yet we spend billions of dollars over seas.

I don’t think that you folks are working hard enough to try and stabilized and reduce this horrible trend of soaring prices. I’ve also written to US Representative Johnson on this matter, but she doesn’t even bother to reply. The only time many of us hear from the elected officials is at election time. What a shame.

A senior citizen,

Robert B. Shaw

10 Stone Fence Lane, Newtown July 14, 2006