The LTE's seem to be leaning one way today.
The real crisis
Let's cut those who cannot find work, who cannot afford this newspaper and whose children struggle on the ragged edge of malnutrition. Let's cut nutrition for pregnant women and infants, so we can create a lifetime of health problems for the next generation to deal with. Why? So we can give tax cuts to those job creators and worthies who are our salvation.
Be compassionate and shrewd at the same time: Feed the hungry!
STEVE SCROGGIN
Winston-Salem
True believers
Vice President Joe Biden was wrong about the tea party being terrorists for threatening not to raise the debt limit. They are not terrorists; they are either fools or ignorant zealots. You do not throw the U.S. and world economy into a tailspin just to make a point. You do not take actions that will result in higher interest rates, higher unemployment and even greater debt to make a point about debt. You do not cut off your nose to spite your face.
Certainly, we need to cut spending, but there also has to be a revenue component. To say we will cut Social Security and Medicare to the bone and not ask the millionaires and billionaires who have profited the most in the last decade to contribute one more red cent — well, you have to be a true believer to buy that line.
Doubtless, Rep. Michele Bachmann is still saying that she would not raise the debt limit under any circumstances. She is also saying that not doing so would not have any economic repercussions. That is the most galling thing about these people: They create their own facts, and reality doesn't matter. The Fifth Estate, in its zeal to not alienate any readers or viewers, treats all statements and views with the same equanimity. At some point someone should say, "Excuse me, but what you just said is absolutely, unequivocally wrong and has nothing to do with reality." It is high time for the press to man up.
DENNIS G. DOSS
Winston-Salem
The tax pledge
I remember when President John Kennedy promised that nothing would take precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts. Of course, he wanted to allay fears that he, being Catholic, might give his first allegiance to the pope.
Now we have 236 representatives and 41 senators in the U.S. Congress who have supposedly signed a pledge to Grover Norquist, a pledge promising that they will not raise taxes or reduce credits that result in a revenue increase. Who is Grover Norquist? Why would members of Congress make a pledge to him or to his organization, Americans for Tax Reform? Doesn't such a pledge conflict with a congressman's oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, particularly to Article 1, Section 8 concerning the general welfare? It is this section that empowers Congress to lay and collect taxes and to pay debts as benefits the general welfare.
I want tax reform; everyone wants tax reform; but let it be accomplished by unencumbered representatives of the American people.
This circus in Washington was inevitable when the loyalties of members of Congress lay elsewhere and when the ability to act freely is compromised. It is not what the founders intended.
BARBARA BUSKIRK
Winston-Salem
Sum It Up:
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Should Forsyth County commissioners continue their fight for sectarian prayer to open meetings?
* * * * *
This fight for sectarian prayer and the fight about flying the Christian flag in King have done great damage to the cause of Christianity. "What Would Jesus Do" should guide us as Christians in all we do, and my opinion is that Jesus would be much more concerned about all the hurting people around us than this pharisaic action by a few. As a Christian, I am disgusted by all this, and I can only imagine how people of other faiths and no faiths must see this. These actions appear to be more of a "my way or the highway" than real concerns about the cause of Christianity.
CYNTHIA GOUGH NANCE
* * * * *
Yes, by all means, please do, forge ahead. It'll be great fun to hear all the pitiful excuses and cries of persecution when they lose in the Supreme Court just like when they lost in the lower courts, just like us Godless heathens said they would.
KAM BENFIELD
* * * * *
No — no — no — please. As a Christian, I ask that the commissioners table this issue and get on with handling the issues and problems we elected them to tackle!
SYD CUNINGHAM
* * * * *
How can we not allow prayer by a non-"government" person to pray before a "government" meeting or assembly? The law states that we cannot interfere with religion. Be it Jesus, or the God of Abraham, or Allah, Mohammed, Jehovah, Yahweh, etc. We can all agree that we need all the help that we can get.
REGINA FRANCK
* * * * *
Good God, no!
JULIA TOONE
* * * * *
Yes, this case should go to the Supreme Court. Personally, I believe that a moment of silence would be the best way to handle this prayer issue. But, it is not constitutional for our government to mandate or restrict how one prays.
HERBERT H. VANN SR.
* * * * *
No, we need freedom from religion! With the King crowd trying to put American Christian flags on government properties and commissioners who have nothing better to do than inject religion into their meetings, we need to address some of the real problems we have. What's wrong with a moment of silence?
AL BAKER
* * * * *
Absolutely not! The facts that the only deity mentioned in the prayers has been Jesus, no clergyperson of other faiths have stepped up to lead sectarian prayer since the controversy began in 2007, and even that the right-wing Christian group "Alliance Defense Fund" is funding the debacle (which in itself may be a violation of the First Amendment) are clear evidence that this is all about the commissioners favoring Christianity and forsaking their civil duties, as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson so well warned against in dozens of documents and letters.
LARRY J. SANDERS
Congress has thrown a fit over whether to pay for what it has already bought, sending the markets into a tizzy and worsening the real crisis. The real crisis is tens of millions of Americans who cannot find work, and consequently know entirely too much about Snooki and her "real world" TV friends.
There are nearly 45 million Americans (half of them children) on food stamps, an average of $133 per month. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich dinner is a gourmand's indulgence. So Congress proposes to change its profligate ways by cutting food stamps and the WIC program for pregnant women and infants.
Except they aren't the answer. A dollar of food stamps creates $1.73 of economic activity because food-stamp recipients spend it, every penny of it, on food — on grocery clerks, on truckers, on workers in food processing, on farmers. Or we can give tax cuts to folks who aren't in need and are likely to just pocket the money because now is not a good time to take risks.
STEVE SCROGGIN
Winston-Salem
True believers
Vice President Joe Biden was wrong about the tea party being terrorists for threatening not to raise the debt limit. They are not terrorists; they are either fools or ignorant zealots. You do not throw the U.S. and world economy into a tailspin just to make a point. You do not take actions that will result in higher interest rates, higher unemployment and even greater debt to make a point about debt. You do not cut off your nose to spite your face.
Certainly, we need to cut spending, but there also has to be a revenue component. To say we will cut Social Security and Medicare to the bone and not ask the millionaires and billionaires who have profited the most in the last decade to contribute one more red cent — well, you have to be a true believer to buy that line.
Doubtless, Rep. Michele Bachmann is still saying that she would not raise the debt limit under any circumstances. She is also saying that not doing so would not have any economic repercussions. That is the most galling thing about these people: They create their own facts, and reality doesn't matter. The Fifth Estate, in its zeal to not alienate any readers or viewers, treats all statements and views with the same equanimity. At some point someone should say, "Excuse me, but what you just said is absolutely, unequivocally wrong and has nothing to do with reality." It is high time for the press to man up.
DENNIS G. DOSS
Winston-Salem
The tax pledge
I remember when President John Kennedy promised that nothing would take precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts. Of course, he wanted to allay fears that he, being Catholic, might give his first allegiance to the pope.
Now we have 236 representatives and 41 senators in the U.S. Congress who have supposedly signed a pledge to Grover Norquist, a pledge promising that they will not raise taxes or reduce credits that result in a revenue increase. Who is Grover Norquist? Why would members of Congress make a pledge to him or to his organization, Americans for Tax Reform? Doesn't such a pledge conflict with a congressman's oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, particularly to Article 1, Section 8 concerning the general welfare? It is this section that empowers Congress to lay and collect taxes and to pay debts as benefits the general welfare.
I want tax reform; everyone wants tax reform; but let it be accomplished by unencumbered representatives of the American people.
This circus in Washington was inevitable when the loyalties of members of Congress lay elsewhere and when the ability to act freely is compromised. It is not what the founders intended.
BARBARA BUSKIRK
Winston-Salem
Sum It Up:
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Should Forsyth County commissioners continue their fight for sectarian prayer to open meetings?
This fight for sectarian prayer and the fight about flying the Christian flag in King have done great damage to the cause of Christianity. "What Would Jesus Do" should guide us as Christians in all we do, and my opinion is that Jesus would be much more concerned about all the hurting people around us than this pharisaic action by a few. As a Christian, I am disgusted by all this, and I can only imagine how people of other faiths and no faiths must see this. These actions appear to be more of a "my way or the highway" than real concerns about the cause of Christianity.
CYNTHIA GOUGH NANCE
Yes, by all means, please do, forge ahead. It'll be great fun to hear all the pitiful excuses and cries of persecution when they lose in the Supreme Court just like when they lost in the lower courts, just like us Godless heathens said they would.
KAM BENFIELD
No — no — no — please. As a Christian, I ask that the commissioners table this issue and get on with handling the issues and problems we elected them to tackle!
SYD CUNINGHAM
How can we not allow prayer by a non-"government" person to pray before a "government" meeting or assembly? The law states that we cannot interfere with religion. Be it Jesus, or the God of Abraham, or Allah, Mohammed, Jehovah, Yahweh, etc. We can all agree that we need all the help that we can get.
REGINA FRANCK
Good God, no!
JULIA TOONE
Yes, this case should go to the Supreme Court. Personally, I believe that a moment of silence would be the best way to handle this prayer issue. But, it is not constitutional for our government to mandate or restrict how one prays.
HERBERT H. VANN SR.
No, we need freedom from religion! With the King crowd trying to put American Christian flags on government properties and commissioners who have nothing better to do than inject religion into their meetings, we need to address some of the real problems we have. What's wrong with a moment of silence?
AL BAKER
Absolutely not! The facts that the only deity mentioned in the prayers has been Jesus, no clergyperson of other faiths have stepped up to lead sectarian prayer since the controversy began in 2007, and even that the right-wing Christian group "Alliance Defense Fund" is funding the debacle (which in itself may be a violation of the First Amendment) are clear evidence that this is all about the commissioners favoring Christianity and forsaking their civil duties, as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson so well warned against in dozens of documents and letters.
LARRY J. SANDERS
LTE1: A bit of a polemic, but the LTE writer has a point. In other times, spending by the well-to-do might well create jobs, but those folks aren't spending so much as just moving money around, so the job creation argument isn't as persuasive.
ReplyDeleteLTE2: This LTE makes good points, but the right and the Tea Party are not alone in making up their own facts. The left spews manufactured data fast and fluently.
LTE3: Declaring a pledge to Norquist's lobbying organization to be unconstitutional stretches things a bit. If that is the case, then political posturing in general is unconstitutional, and perhaps we can get Maxine Waters booted out of Congress. Now, whether reflexively refusing to increase taxes regardless of need is stupid or not is another matter. But like posturing, stupidity is not unconstitutional, either.
Sum It Up: My answer to this overtalked subject remains NO. This effort is posturing over something that is unconstitutional.
Mr. Doss....had the congress followed the Tea Party's recommendation and passed 'Cut, Cap, and Balance', the stock market would have went up, not down. The head of S&P said as much. Congress simply did not cut spending by $4 trillion dollars as suggested.
ReplyDeleteBy suggesting that the Tea Party was at fault- was right out of the 'ole Clinton play book. Blame the victim, not the true culprit, which was the Democrats' addiction to spending.
LTE 1...seeems to run through the field erecting straw men only to burn them down at the conclusion. That's one way to engage in farming and politics at the same time. "So we give tax cuts" is such Statist trash. It makes me wonder why all the money collected for worthy help programs like he mentioned has to go to that maze of bureacracy in DC who take a healthy cut before it finally reaches the people who need it. If a charity here at home did this, there would be a feature story on it in the paper and tv. What if DC leaves me alone on this matter and allows-since give and allow are whims of the benevolent State- me to increase the amount of feed the hungry we do each month?
ReplyDeleteLTE 2...yeah, people do say that what someone says or does does not square with reality. Its called bickering by some and debating by others. There are many realities in DC, one is that the media for the most part is part of the ruling class and therefore engaged in maintaining the status quo which is why they yammer on about compromise. A large reality now unfolding is the inescapable fact that the politics of benefits for seniors and others paid for by young people as well as those unborn, is coming to an end after 75 years. Anyone who points this out is now a "terrorist" or some such hysterical word. Fine. Count me in. This arena is sort of a comfort zone for me anyway.
ReplyDeleteLTE 3...we have gone from promote the general welfare to provide for the general welfare. Just how much State do you want? Unencumbered reps managed to get us here.
ReplyDeleteThe Tea Party members started off as astro turf-Nancy Pelosi
ReplyDeleteThen, they became racists-NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus
Now they are terrorists-MSNBC,CNN, ABC, CBS...Sen. Chuck Schumer (D)New York etc.
And all they want congress to do is balance the budget. Can you imagine if they were actually bad people?
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: Love the first paragraph. Being more familiar with Snooki than with math and science is a recipe for the unemployment line. The thinking that 10% of the people will spend enough to lift the entire country out of its economic doldrums is highly dubious.
LTE 2: Knew I should have copyrighted "True Believer". The most basic fiscally responsible act any person or organization can do is to pay the bills it owes. That's what the debt ceiling vote is all about. Any group that claims to be for fiscal responsibility, but worked to deny this most fundamental act has lost all credibility with me.
LTE 3: The pledge doesn't conflict with the oath of allegiance, but placing that limitation on one's vote is a pretty stupid thing to do. Even the right's patron saint, Ronald Reagan raised taxes his second term when the deficits began to pile up. Fiscal responsibility has a revenue component in addition to a spending component. Right now in GDP terms, the revenue component is too low and the spending component is too high, so BOTH have to brought into line.
Sun it up: Oh, please. It should never have been appealed in the first place. The USSC won't hear it, so why bother?
Stab.........where are all your liberal friends? I figured they'd be in here defending Obama's buffoonery.
ReplyDeleteHere is the official S&P statement regarding the US downgrade:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.standardandpoors.com/ratings/articles/en/us/?assetID=1245316529563
I don't see "cut, cap and balance" mentioned anywhere nor is there any reference to the impact on the markets. I do see the brinkmanship games being played as a major source of concern as well as a downward revision to AA if the Bush tax cuts are extended, whereas the AA+ will be retained if the tax cuts are allowed to expire.
Hello, Bucky, WW, dotnet!
ReplyDeleteOur liberals have been a bit scarce the past day and a half. I hope they will return soon.
It's hard to defend the indefensible. What we've got in Obama is a mix of Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. We've got Clinton's pathological lying, and Carther's incompetence.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Romney fan, but I like the way he handled that psychotic Democratic heckler in Ames, Iowa. He better get used to them, they're everywhere.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a betting man, I'd say either Romney or Perry will be our next president.
They identified the left wing fruit loop who attack Romney as a member of radical liberal group in Ames. The Democrats have more nuts in their party than Planters.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched the debate this evening, but have been receiving tweets from Jamie Dupree. Looks like Pawlenty and Bachmann got into it this evening. That probably made Pawlenty look good to moderate voters while Bachmann appealed to the typical R primary voter. Not promising for the R's to run a good center-right candidate, but perhaps I'm a pessimist.
ReplyDelete