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I would like to know the total dollar contribution -- people and material -- that the national guard has made to military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is this above and beyond the funding appropriated by Congress? Is this number integrated into the total amount stated for the cost -- into the many billions. I, for one, did not fully realize that the national guard provided the hardware as well as the personnel. How much will it cost EACH state to replace the trucks, helicopters, etc. So would this be considered, in effect, an additional, unstated tax to fund the war -- since the money to replace all of this equipment will have to come from somewhere? There are so many lies and half-truths associated with this unfortunate venture, it makes my head spin.

Gov. Corzine should be working to undo layers of counterproductive legislation that render individual policies unaffordable to most people in NJ. An extensive list of mandated coverages combined with mandated community rating (everyone pays the same price regardless of health or claims history) means that a young, single healthy adult must now pay around $303 per month for an HMO plan, roughly double what it was 5 years ago. There is no real competition among insurers, and premiums are effectively fixed. The mandates mean that cost-effective "catastrophic coverage" policies are simply not available. Where mandates should be in place, but are missing, are in the realm of hospital pricing, which should be made transparent. I can cite a real case of someone with a bruised finger who went to the local ER to be sure that it wasn't broken. For just an X-ray, an icepack and a 5 minute consultation with a "physician assistant," not an MD, she was billed nearly $1,100. Her insurer knocked this down to about $400, still an excessive amount for the minimal services rendered.

RE: National Guard call-up

Is this about needing more soldiers, or about getting their equipment? Is this the Bush way to back-door supply a mismanaged military without having the costs of HumVees and helicopters show up in the current bottom line of this Middle-East fiasco?

Re. the NJ National Guard, it might be worth doing a follow-up piece on how the Iraq war depleted the Louisiana National Guard and its equipment, and the resulting catastrophe this wrought in the wake of the failure of the levees (US Army Corps of Engineers-built and maintained). I have family in New Orleans and grew up there, and I fear lives will be lost needlessly if NJ faces a disaster like New Orleans did, heaven forbid.

Wish you had asked Corzine by what authority the president is federalizing his militia. Under federal law, only in case of rebellion or national emergency is the president authorized to call up these troops. As commander-in-chief of his state's militia, Corzine is obliged to resist this illegal order.

Currently the SCHIP would be funded in part by tobacco tax

(see http://www.westcoastcigars.net/SCHIP.html)

and the war in Iraq funded in part by federal income tax.

If funding sources were respectively switched I would approve.

Can Mr. Corzine kindly arrange this simple accounting change?