GOP could have prevented economic disaster Re: “Saving ‘surpluses’ wouldn’t avert the entitlement crisis,” May 5
Philip Klein is either mistaken about the surplus issue, or a Baghdad Bob wannabe spouting disinformation about the GOP’s screw-ups. He conveniently overlooks the fact that the RINOs and neocons cut taxes, started two needless wars, and created more Medicare spending so there would be nothing left for the Democrats to spend on social programs.
Were they ever wrong! The donkeys ignored the deficit and gladly ratcheted up spending even more.
If the Bushies had kept taxes where they were, cut worthless programs and cut back on poorly managed programs like Medicare, we would not have a problem now. Instead of debt, we would have a multitrillion surplus we could use for economic stimuli. We would not be printing money and goosing inflation while pretending that it will somehow jump-start the economy.
William Adams
Springfield
Obama should release bin Laden photos
Re: “Obama refuses to release bin Laden photos,” May 5
President Obama seems to think that showing the photos of the dead Osama bin Laden is like spiking the football. Why not celebrate a touchdown? If we are ashamed of our handiwork, then we shouldn’t have done it in the first place.
I am concerned about a president who acts like a paternal dictator and decides what his ignorant subjects are entitled to witness, picking and choosing what information to give his subjects like a parent solicitously caring for children.
Our celebration will win support from the moderate Arabs and draw the fanatics out so that we can get a shot at them, too.
David Lawrence
New York, N.Y.
Not much difference between Obama, Romney
Though Barack Obama is labeled a liberal, and Mitt Romney is called a conservative, they are not as different as black and white.
Both are well-spoken, physically attractive, and intelligent. Neither is unduly hampered by meticulous veracity or fastidious moral scruple. Nor are they burdened by excessive ideological commitment or mental stress due to logical inconsistency. Both share the same personality: a smooth operator who gets things done.
One of the main things they both got done turned out to be the same thing, although supposedly derived from opposite ideological views. Their health care reforms entailed a few questionable impositions on individual liberty, but each cleverly articulated a facile explanation of how their mandates could be legally imposed under the Commerce Clause (Obama) or states’ rights (Romney).
If we can get their respective parties to nominate these two paragons of practicality, Americans will benefit in the end, no matter who wins in 2012.
Anthony Teague
Oakton
