Trade talk: We're paying for mistakes of decades ago

Trade talk: We're paying for mistakes of decades ago
EDITOR:
Since the creation of our country, America's politicians have debated about how much we should import and export. If they could have reduced imports just a little now and then since about 1960 so that we would now have about 5 percent less imports of any and all products and increased exports of about 10 percent more than we have today, many of our problems would no longer exist.
We can make adjustments to the interest rate at banks, and this is an excellent example for us to use in regard to making adjustments to how much should we import and export.
It makes more sense to do this gradually. Now we are faced with a crisis between the American people and the World Trade Organization. More drastic adjustments are now demanded, and the WTO wants those drastic adjustments to be made in their favor.
It's so much easier to negotiate an increase when we are talking about a hundredth of 1 percent at a time, and now it's "We the people" who are paying the price.
Again too much talk and not enough immediate action for ourselves and not enough action for those in the future as well.
Most who were in grade school back then often wonder why adjustments were not made for the far future. Yes, it's our duty to take action now for the benefit of those living 40 years from now.
I believe most voters have good reasons to stand by their candidates, but when our preferred candidates are divided on the issues, it's those hard-working taxpaying Americans who suffer to no end. Many of them or their family members have fought or are now fighting for a new and improved "America."
An America with an economy that never bottoms out and with more people working and sharing the tax burden could gradually restore our lost surplus for the federal government and that of the states.
It really costs nothing for them to take action, but it costs the American public trillions of dollars every decade. Their businesses, their jobs, their families, their lives and their national security are always at stake, and I firmly believe there was a time they were able to hide this pain deep down inside.
We can no longer hold grudges against one another as Democrats, Republicans or Independents. It's Americans who count, and it's Americans who fight side by side for our liberty. Americans work side by side to make a living and to pay those taxes, and it's Americans who fight against terrorists at home and overseas.
JOE MASON
Salem
Troops need to know we'rebehind them all the way
EDITOR:
All too often, I read in the newspapers, or watch on television, politicians using the war in Iraq for personal or political gain.
Our troops do not need nor deserve our own leaders debating on whether or not we should be helping the Iraqi people. They should be given all the trust and support we can give them to keep their morale high and to finish the job they have under way of ridding these countries of the thugs and terrorists who have ruined these countries for years.
At this moment, I have a brother serving in Iraq. He is a doctor in the Army Reserve Medical Corps. In the past three years, he has been to three different war zones -- Afghanistan, Kosovo, and now, Iraq.
I am proud of his accomplishments and give him my full support. All of the veterans he cares for at the Youngstown VA Clinic love and respect him. They also support his decision to serve our country with pride.
So, let us all band together to support our troops, and with God's help, they will all return home safely. God bless our troops and God bless the U.S.A.!
ROCKY YEROPOLI
Campbell