Pursuing long-term solutions

Pursuing long-term solutions

I write in response to a Sept. 18 letter to the editor criticizing President Obama’s American Jobs Act and supporting Issue Two. The letter clearly illustrates the folly and failure of Republican ideology the writer had adopted. While President Obama has developed a well thought-out plan that will both create jobs and reduce the deficit, Republicans, including those fighting for the party’s presidential nomination, offer no new ideas, only roadblocks.

Their solution to the job crisis and the deficit is the same as it has been for more than a decade: attack middle class workers and preserve tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. What has their policy yielded? The great recession of 2007, from which we have not fully recovered, and the largest budget shortfalls in our nation’s history.

The attack on working families that characterizes Republican policy at the national level has been replicated in Ohio, particularly with the passage of Senate Bill 5. Rather than finding ways to create and preserve good-paying jobs, Governor John Kasich and his cohorts decided to attack the living standards of hundreds of thousands of middle class workers, including first responders and teachers. Rather than passing legislation that attempts to make these workers poorer, we should be striving to create an environment in which every citizen can once again work hard and earn a piece of the American Dream.

President Obama and those who are fighting to repeal Senate Bill 5 understand that creating the opportunity for all Americans to prosper is the only way to create jobs and generate the revenue needed to deal with the nation’s long-term budget deficit. It is my hope that the Republicans who caused the problems that now confront us will either join in the effort to put the nation on the road to recovery or get out of the way so Democrats can get the job done.

Atty. David J. Betras, Canfield

The writer is chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party.