While we are fortunate enough and wise enough to be able to cover our responsibilities and still maintain a great lifestyle we are sick and tired of being used as an ATM by the state. We have used those words exactly!

Our disappointment is so great that we are currently considering leaving the state, despite loving our town, friends and the life we have made here. We can no longer accept being penalized by New Jersey simply because we have worked hard and have achieved some financial success.

Geri Finlayson

Ramsey

Republicans need to keep their hands clean

Re: “Pelosi aide says Democratic congressional leaders have settled on a legislative ‘trick’ to pass Obamacare,” Feb. 10

This is just further proof that Democrats are truly unwilling to negotiate on any point in the health care bill, and that acts of bipartisanship are just pomp and circumstance.

President Obama’s “attempts” at bipartisanship are his version of leaping to the center — except he has no intention of shifting his policies to a more moderate stance. Despite the political repercussions, Republicans should steer clear of any “summits” and just sit the game out so there is no way the president or Democrats can say that they were part of the process.

Republicans need to keep their hands clean.

Laura Hill

Washington White House on the wrong track

Re: “White House: People who criticize us are helping al Qaeda,” Feb. 11

The Obama administration is definitely on the wrong track in charging the accused terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as an everyday criminal as opposed to charging him as an enemy combatant and terrorist.

This terrorist wanted to bomb a Northwest airliner with 278 passengers on Christmas Day.

The decision to give this terrorist Miranda rights was about the worst thing this administration could do. This terrorist was trained by al Qaeda, equipped with a bomb made by them and dispatched by them.

Eric Holder owes the people of this country a full explanation for the decision to charge him as common criminal instead of as an enemy combatant and terrorist. We realize that the administration has abandoned the term “war on terror” but we are still at war and this terrorist does not deserve Miranda rights and a group of liberal defense attorneys to plead his case.

He should be handled as an enemy combatant and receive a military tribunal. Since when are full American constitutional rights granted to foreign terrorists? Wake up Obama administration. This was once again a wrong decision from the start.

Al Eisner

Silver Spring