To the Editor:

I am now fully convinced that there is a conspiracy in the media to demonize President Bush in every way possible. By bringing kids into the forefront of the health care debate, many now completely believe that Bush vetoed the health care bill solely to feed his demons. The American media, in their almighty righteousness, has not misreported the issue but they surely have under-reported it.

There is currently an eight cent tax on tobacco and the health care bill was going to be funded by raising it to well over a dollar. Consider the ramifications of raising the tax on tobacco by such a ridiculous rate. Nearly all of the tobacco farmers in my province in the Dominican Republic would have their contracts frozen. The same goes for other countries in Latin America.

What worries me about this whole issue is that the tax increase guaranteed that hundreds of thousands of farmers across Latin America would suddenly find themselves unemployed. For Third World nations that are already neck-deep in a sea of poverty, this bill promised to drown them outright. Why didn’t any of the major news networks report on the number of jobs that Bush saved in Latin America? Or the number of children that will continue to eat because their parents are employed? Isn’t the media’s job to present the news to us impartially — or at least pretend to do so?

Many seem to think that raising the tobacco tax is somehow going to help people quit. It won’t! The only thing it could achieve is tighten the wallets of the poor in the United States.

I approve of health care for U.S. children but not when it means denying basic necessities to another group of children. I could list a million different ways in which Congress could easily raise the money necessary to fund health care but that would make me go on a libertarian rant about the silly war on drugs, neocolonialism, etc.

Jose Abrego

Oct. 18

Abrego is a junior in Ezra Stiles College.