Wizard of health
President-elect Donald Trump nominated Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator (“Dr. Oz will head up Medicare, Medicaid,” Nov. 20).
America is facing a health-care crisis, and there may be no physician more qualified and capable than Oz to make America healthy again. He is an eminent physician, heart surgeon, inventor and world-class communicator who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades.
Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach, Fla.
Overtime overkill
When I was a precinct commander, every month I received two overtime print-outs (“NYPD’S top pay $400K — at desk,” Nov. 17).
One report listed anyone who was or was soon to be retirement eligible, who earned over 20 hours of overtime for the previous month. You had to do an “exception report” explaining how the overtime was earned and what steps you were taking to curtail it.
The other overtime report listed the top 200 overtime earners, and if anyone under your command was on that list, you had to do an analysis of how the it was earned (usually via arrests) and how you were going to lower those hours.
Often, this meant taking your proactive officers off patrol and putting them in admin positions.
That was over 20 years ago. Is anyone minding the store anymore?
Thomas Mullen, Yonkers
Hollywood hate
Kudos on the powerful story about Justine Bateman (“ ‘Family Ties’ star Justine Bateman getting guff over Trump victory ‘relief,’ ” Nov. 17).
Her willingness to speak out is a rare act of courage. In a world where expressing any opinion outside the “permitted positions” is met with mob mentality, Bateman’s defiance is both refreshing and necessary.
Her battle cry exposes the chilling reality of our time, and coverage of it amplifies her brave stand against a suffocating culture of silence.
Greg Rickabaugh, Fort Mill, SC
‘The Empty State’
New York is headed for massive shrinkage — thanks to its repellant progressive agenda (“The Incredible Shrinking Empire State,” Editorial, Nov. 18).
The Post identifies the expected population decline in New York and some of the reasons. However, it fails to mention whether this projection includes Gov. Hochul’s wishes about Republicans.
A few years back, Hochul told Republicans to leave New York, and recently, she told Trump voters they were anti-American and anti-women, so I would expect the decline to be even greater based on the number of New Yorkers voting GOP this past election.
What percentage of Republicans plan on leaving as result of these comments?
Eileen Corr, Brewster, Mass.
Biden’s bumming
For the record: I have never been a President Biden supporter (“Back-row ‘snub,’ Xi up front in Peru,” Nov. 17).
That being said, I feel the placement of Biden in the APEC group photo was a complete insult to him personally, and to the office of the president of the United States and to the United States as a country. To add insult to injury, China’s President Xi was awarded a place of prominence.
President-elect Trump should make it abundantly clear that the United States is insulted by the treatment of its head of state, no matter his politics.
J. Mancuso, Naples, Fla.
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