Winston-Salem Journal LTE MO 09/24/12

Repairing the damage

Mitt Romney’s recently-disclosed comments are so crude, unfair and unpresidential that even long-time conservative supporters are criticizing him and abandoning his campaign.

Yet the Journal reports the problem on A8 (“Romney: Many think they are victims,” Sept. 18) and his apologists’ defenses on A1 (“Romney remarks defended,” Sept. 19).

Is this, perhaps, an indication of who the Journal will endorse for president this year?

If so, let me urge you strongly to reconsider. We had to suffer eight years of Republican tragedy under George W. Bush. No one could repair that damage in a mere four years, but President Obama has done a remarkable job, especially considering the opposition he’s faced from unreasonable, prejudiced men like Romney.

Bush led us to disaster. Obama pulled us back from the abyss. Does anyone really think that Romney would take us anywhere but back to disaster?

JANE FREEMONT GIBSON

Winston-Salem

Paying the debt

I hope most intelligent, reasoning people, whether Republican, Democrat or unaffiliated, read the Sept. 16 editorial “Business must cover this debt.” It's very well-written and to the point, which is:

Pat McCrory, a Republican running for governor of North Carolina, was and is a businessman. Business owners will benefit by taxing non-business owners, i.e., working stiffs like us, to pay back the loans from the federal government for unemployment compensation to workers laid off or fired during the recession. The reason for this was that our North Carolina legislature kept decreasing business owners' mandatory unemployment insurance payments for employees to keep and attract businesses, which has been happening since the 1990s. De-regulation of big business, which moved out of country; massive lay-offs; the unemployed filing in droves, and North Carolina reserves, underfunded because of the above, were quickly used up. Now we owe the federal government $2.8 billion in unemployment loans. $2.8 billion!

Pat McCrory wants all North Carolina taxpayers to foot this repayment by (gasp, of course!) raising non-business taxpayers’ taxes. Employees didn't benefit by these decreased unemployment premiums, just the business owners. As the editorial said, that's not fair. If Republican Pat McCrory becomes governor, with a majority Republican Senate and House, this is exactly what will happen.

Let business pay for this debt. Please remember this on voting day.

PATRICIA R. STOCKMEISTER

Winston-Salem

Refutation

The writer of the letter “Facts” (Sept. 18) seems to believe that labeling something as “fact” is an effective argument. Following is as much refutation as word limits allow:

The fact that job losses were occurring when President Obama was sworn in is typical for the middle of a recession. What is remarkable is how Obama’s counter-productive policies have retarded the recovery and have resulted in a 14.6 percent unemployment rate (inclusive of discouraged workers). Reagan’s recovery from a similar sharp downturn resulted in three times as much growth at the comparable business cycle point.

Crediting Obama with a rise in the stock market is extremely dubious. If Obama really does have magical market powers, why hasn’t he lifted the Dow above its 2007 level of 13,639? Has Obama fallen below the Bush benchmark? (Answer: no one has that kind of influence over the market.)

General Motors is not thriving. Its share price is half of what would be required to pay back the taxpayers. The Obama intervention merely allowed GM to continue its insane labor policies and compete unfairly with other auto companies that manufacture in the U.S. A proper bankruptcy procedure would have forced structural changes that would have allowed GM to thrive without additional subsidies.

Osama bin Laden is dead, thank God and thank the SEALs. And thank political adviser Valerie Jarrett who, having previously vetoed the mission three times, finally allowed Obama to give the go-ahead.

Fact is, we need new leadership.

ROBERT L. WATSON

Advance

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