Voters are complicit, too

Congratulations editorial board on two consecutive editorials. Your health care editorial (March 29) was right on. Your March 30 editorial explains why health care and other issues aren’t being taken care of: partisan fighting in both houses of Congress. You place most of the blame on Congress for the partisanship that leads to accomplishing little useful legislation. Don’t blame Congress. They are elected by us and are reflecting the partisanship that exists among the voting public.

We have become a very divided country over many years. Some reasons: fighting unfunded wars and passing unfunded programs resulting in huge national debts; President Ronald Reagan with his famous quote “government is the problem, not the solution to our problems”; Newt Gingrich with, “Democrats can’t be good Americans”; Grover Norquist twisting the arms of most Republicans for absolutely no new taxes, when it is evident that balancing the budget is a combination of more revenue and less spending.

Throw in energy development, global warming, fair share of taxes, and …

Couple the above problems with filling the airwaves with vitriolic, one-sided talk shows since elimination of the “Fairness Doctrine” in the 1980s, and we set the stage for bitter partisanship.

Theodore W. Shepard

Spokane Valley