Most Valley residents aren't better off than 4 years ago

Most Valley residents aren'tbetter off than 4 years ago
EDITOR:
While some people in the Valley implore others to retain the Bush administration in the White House for another four miserable years simply because it gives lip service to "Christian values," I think it more a propos to ask ourselves a question that harkens back to an earlier Republican president: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"
Consider these facts:
1) In four years, our nation has gone form record surpluses to record deficits. We're now working on a deficit approaching $600 trillion! Our great-great-great grandchildren will be working to resolve this debt!
2) While the Bush administration wastes billions of our tax dollars on a failed anti-terrorism strategy in Iraq, millions of American children go to bed hungry every night.
3) While a mass exodus of manufacturing and IT jobs seriously threatens the economy of this country, our president stands idly by preaching the "sanctity of marriage" and undermining the constitutionally guaranteed right of all women to a reproductive strategy of their choice.
4) While annual middle-class wages have plummeted more than $1,400 in four years, our president has done nothing to control the rising costs of a college education, health care, food, housing and even gasoline!
5) While our president argues the importance of tort reform for the medical industry, we're not any closer to a national health care program than we were 12 years ago. The fact is, America is one of the last industrial nations on earth to NOT have a national health care system!
6) To placate American senior citizens concerned with ever-rising prescription drug costs, the Bush administration works closely with America's drug companies to ensure that the cost of prescription drugs under his new program can never be scrutinized. And to top it all off, this administration tries to make outlaws of our seniors when they attempt to buy less expensive drugs from Canada and Mexico!
7) While our president proclaims himself to be a friend of the environment, he proposes to drill for oil in the Alaskan wilderness, permits a relaxing of corporate pollution standards (and calls it "the clear skies initiative") and allows large-scale logging concerns freer access to our national forests in the name of a healthy forests program.
8) While the Bush administration provides a pittance of a tax break for the American people, it refuses to acknowledge the billions of corporate tax dollars that go unpaid every year by way of tax breaks for the wealthiest in our society.
9) While our nation's educational system collapses around us, our president rails us on the value of "faith-based" initiatives and then grossly undefunds these programs.
10) While the whole world works toward improved fossil fuel management our president works hard to insure that gas-guzzling Hummer owners receive tax breaks for their "investments."
Again I ask: Are we better off than we were four years ago?
AL BLAZO
Youngstown
Ryan showed irresponsibilityby supporting pork bill
EDITOR:
With so many Valley residents unemployed or facing possible layoffs, it was so nice of Congressman Tim Ryan to vote yes recently on a $283 billion pork-filled transportation bill.
By voting yes, Mr. Ryan helped pass this $283 billion bill, which is $27 billion more than President Bush requested and locks in spending that is 32 percent higher than the previous transportation bill six years ago.
What type of pork projects did Congressman Ryan spend our tax dollars on?
Here are a few examples:
U $4 million marked for graffiti elimination in Brooklyn, New York.
U $1 million for a parking lot in San Diego.
U $3.5 million for horse trails in Virginia.
U$5 million for a parking garage in downtown Bozeman, Montana.
U$250,000 for a web site for the Blue Ridge Travel Association in Virginia.
This bill is everything that is wrong with Washington. I expect Congressman Ryan to be more responsible with my tax dollars. If Mr. Ryan cannot be more responsible, he does not deserve a second term in Congress.
DENNIS S. SPISAK
Struthers