Thursday, July 21, 2011
It’s time for Republicans and Democrats to start serving ‘usn’s’
Republicans, stop trying to blame the president (No, I didn’t vote for him). Democrats and Republicans, start representing the citizenry of the USA; that is us’ns.
Us’ns want to be effectively represented by those whom we have voted into office. Congress got us’ns into this overspending mess; spending bills originate in the House of Representatives. Right? The President administers what Congress legislates, so stop looking toward your re-election; stop posturing and blaming, and get on with dealing with the woes that your colleagues, present and past, have created.
Serving party interests must be subservient to serving the interests of citizens.
The tax code is mammoth; it contains thousands of extraneous items giving favorable treatment to entities with deep pockets and specific financial interests, entities capable of lobbying until they get their way, regardless of the public interest.
Those who profess that taxes must never be raised, and that closing unfair tax loopholes is tantamount to raising taxes should be sent to their room without TV rights until they are ready to behave like mature adults. If you think that closing loopholes might bring in too much money, consider encouraging savings by excluding from taxation the first 500 or so dollars of interest earned, dividends earned and capital gains; this might help the middle class and not help the rich very much.
Reforming the federal tax code may seem easy to some, but it is my belief that it cannot precede true campaign-finance reform. Politicians are beholden to moneyed entities; breaking these ties might permit legislators to direct their attention to serving the interests of us’ns, the citizens of the USA.
By the way, the July/August issue of The Atlantic contains a must-read article by Mickey Edwards titled “How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans.” It’s not necessary that you agree with the author’s recommendations, but do give considerable thought to effecting functional efficient government.
Tom Jeffries, Greenville, Pa.
A perfect waste of time, money
Our government’s attitude of “we’ll get our man” should be left to traitors and terrorists, not alleged steroid users and alleged liars, especially since most of our government members are elected based on lies.
Millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted on this (Roger Clemens) crap/trial.
Andrew A. Ruetz, Austintown