Letters To The Editor

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Color the deficit olive drab

Countless letters about the budget impact have blamed liberals and Great Society programs for the national debt. Historically speaking, this is a great fallacy.

Our great debt was constructed by military spending both in times of war and peace. Wars created most of the $1 trillion dollar debt we had from President George Washington through President Jimmy Carter. The last big increase, from $1 trillion to $4 trillion, was created by the massive peacetime arms buildup by the Reagan administration in the 1980s.

One could argue into the indefinite future about the wisdom of positioning ourselves as policemen of the world since WWII. Most certainly, one couldn’t argue the tremendous costs and upkeep of our military establishment.

In addition, most U.S. foreign aid revolves around where we have military bases and which allies we consider strategically important. That’s why we rushed into Saudi Arabia and thus far have all but avoided Bosnia.

Even now, while the Republican Congress seeks to slash our senior citizens and poor, the Republicans want to pump even more money into the military.

The point is simply this: Can we afford to police the world, defending our wealthy allies such as Japan and Germany to the point where they spend almost nothing on defense?

Argue all you want the wisdom of debt. But put the blame squarely where it belongs - on military spending. Gregory P. Hande Spokane

Lopsidedness not my idea of right

The undersigned is now neither a Republican nor a Democrat, although I was a registered Republican prior to the GOP’s penalize-the-poor-and-hand-it-to-the-rich bill put forth under the guise of deficit reduction.

I’m not totally a so-called liberal or conservative, but I am a Catholic and I care about people, especially the infirm, the poor and the underprivileged.

I’m amazed at the insensitive letters to The Spokesman-Review on Nov. 27 by Michael Wiman and Anita G. Lewis, who are obviously following the party line and so fail to refer to aspects of the GOP proposal reflecting substantial tax benefits for the wealthy while discontinuing assistance to the poor.

I fail to detect “dripping venom” in Frank Bartel’s column. To the contrary, I view Bartel as a caring, honest, decent, courageous columnist who tells it like it is. Norman D. Godbold Coeur d’Alene

Selfish pay-back clause mars contract

Cuts of about $100 billion will ensure Medicare’s viability into the next century. Why are the Republicans lopping $270 billion?

They had to figure out a way to pay for their promised tax cuts. These extreme cuts weren’t part of the Republicans’ Contract on America.

Americans want to eliminate deficit spending, but they believe a tax cut now does not make sense. Republicans have pushed the stupid idea of reducing taxes while promising to reduce deficit spending since Ronald Reagan began this mess 15 short years ago.

The only way they can make the hokey contract work is by stealing from the poor and elderly (while cutting deals with the American Medical Association) to pay for tax cuts for the rich.

Fifty percent of taxpaying Americans earn less than $30,000 a year, yet only 4 percent of the proposed Republican tax cuts will go to these working people. So where is all of the tax cut (also known as Medicare theft) money going? Republicans want to give it to their buddies who paid their way into office: the richest 1 percent of Americans.

Ninety-three percent of Republicans in Congress in the 1960s voted against Medicare.

Republicans are the enemy of the middle class and the elderly. Their friends will have plenty of money to pay increased Medicare premiums; they’ll use the tax cut savings that you let them get away with. Contact your representatives and remind them of who they work for: us! Mark Lawrence Potlatch, Idaho

GOP approach bad then, wrong now

The letter by Leo K. Lindenbauer (“Nation teetering on the brink,” Nov. 23) was indicative of the Old World ideology the Republican-controlled Congress is trying to shove down our throats.

The Republican agenda cuts welfare and Medicare while lowering taxes for a privileged few.

The Republican agenda seeks to make economic growth the No. 1 priority of the constituency that voted the Republicans in. With cuts to social programs, taxes and elimination of restrictions on industry, we’ll see a return to unhampered economic growth and exploitation. The track record for that is the Great Depression and the recession-plagued ‘80s. Both periods were further marred by the polarization of wealth.

What will this conservative “insight and direction” bring us?

One thing we’ve seen are decreased salaries for lower-income families, making it impossible for many to support a family. The drive for profitability lowered salaries, creating the need for two-career families.

The average American family no longer has a central figure of control; spouses can no longer depend on each other to perform as anything other than a breadwinner. Hence, we have the new dysfunctional family that is barely able to make ends meet.

Children come home from school and switch on degenerative talk shows to watch ranting social and moral misfits. The only relief from this mindless drivel are the many commercial breaks where brewers advertise their wares, knowing that daytime is the best time to catch the average welfare recipient sitting in their chair, drinking beer. Brian Buck Moscow, Idaho

Harsh judgments make bad policy

Someone should, in all charity, alert Margaret Schuster (“Church perpetuating poverty,” Letters, Nov. 23) that failure to control emotions, resulting in skyrocketing blood pressure, can have serious consequences for her physical well-being.

Schuster’s irate because the Catholic Bishop of Cleveland, saying that morality is a necessary factor in political decisions, has dared to go counter to her religious sentiments and political ideology.

Although the First Amendment guarantees to everyone the right to voice and advocate any political belief we see fit, she demands that bishops be stripped of their civil rights and forced to pay a punitive tax.

Schuster justifies the GOP welfare program as the means to fight sin (illegitimacy). The fact is that only the slightest minority of the burden of the GOP plan would fall on the sexually promiscuous. The brunt of the pain would be borne by the elderly, the disabled, poor families, and completely innocent children.

A constantly recurring theme in Jesus’ teaching is that we are not allowed to play God and judge the conscience of our fellow humans. That’s what the Pharisees did. Edward B. Keeley Spokane

LABOR

Nonunion workers, get on board

Nonunion workers at Kaiser and Boeing industries should show their appreciation to dues-paying union members by joining and paying their own dues at long last.

Card-carrying workers have paid their dues, fought the battle and lost wages due to recent strikes. They now deserve some recognition from nonunion workers.

Increased membership should cause a decrease in individual dues. One for all, all for one. There’s strength in numbers.

Workers in other lines of work also need to organize to seek their fair share of growing corporate profits. Workers’ needs include better wages, improved health care, improved retirement benefits and job security.

According to James G. Driscoll’s Nov. 19 commentary (“Wake up! Time to Go to Work,” News), total union membership has decreased in the last three decades, from 34.7 percent of this nation’s workers to 15.5 percent at the present. Wages and entitlements have decreased in direct proportion to the loss in union membership, which is 16.75 million at the present.

If you didn’t read Driscoll’s powerful column on labor, I suggest you do so now. James W. Galloway Jr. Spokane