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John Jackson seems to support Becky Lockhart's refusal to accept Medicaid expansion money because he is worried about the federal deficit ("Refusing to expand Medicaid is being responsible," Forum, Feb. 26).

I worry about the deficit as well, but I also am sure that when the Constitution Preamble was written, the part concerning "promoting the general welfare " wasn't referring to a detested government program, it was referring to a minimal level of health and well-being of citizens needed to support this democracy.

We could take care of all this deficit dilemma by selling off (or not buying) just three of the $160 million F-35s soon to be stationed at Hill that will probably crash in the west desert anyway or be made even more completely obsolete by a Gameboy and a drone.

We could further lessen the deficit by raising fees on petroleum to offset the costs of using our military in order to protect our oil sources.

Chris Pond

Sandy