By JERRY GRAHAM
I am always amazed by your "Our View" editorials. Whereas I don't dispute your right to your opinions, I think you have the obligation to present information accurately and justify your positions our make it clear when they are based on emotion.
In recent columns you derided President Bush for increasing the deficit during his administration while ignoring that Obama has increased the deficit more in one year than Bush did in his total term. Obama's pork-laden, $860 billion dollar stimulus bill, which was to create 3 million new jobs and prevent the unemployment rate from going above 8 percent, has been a dismal failure. The unemployment rate has gone from about 7.7 percent to 9.7 percent and 2.5 million more jobs have been lost.
Shovel-ready projects were to be given priority, but little has been done. What more shovel-ready and needed project is there than completing the fence and other border security measures? But rather than tackle this obvious need, Obama refuses to address this because he doesn't want to alienate the Hispanic vote while the vast majority of Americans overwhelmingly support securing the Mexican border. Further, recent FBI data show that the Mexican border is also a sieve for terrorist infiltration into the U.S.
In your May 28 editorial, you ask, "What liberty does Labrador insinuate has been lost at the hands of President Obama and needs to be restored?" While I don't know much about Labrador, are you joking about ignoring the current and impending loss of liberty?
Firstly, under Obama-care, I will no longer be able to choose the type of health insurance I deem appropriate, including having none if I decide to be self-insured. More ominous losses of liberty and choice are buried in the 2,700 pages.
Secondly, Obama's card-check proposal takes away the right of the worker to have the security of a secret ballot when voting on whether to become a union shop and opens the worker to intimidation from the unions, a well-documented strategy of the unions.
Thirdly, Obama is trying to use the "fairness doctrine" to limit talk show radio that is against his agenda.
Need I go on?
In another editorial, you also rant about the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While I won't debate the pros and cons of the wars, I take issue on ignoring the largest war expenditure in U.S. history, the "war on poverty" started by Johnson.
These trillions of dollars spent on this "war" have been a dismal failure, and the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan pale in comparison. No one can argue with the idea, but the implementation is a disaster. After trillions of dollars spent, we have about 50 percent of the population paying zero income tax and turning America into a welfare state. It has changed the American mentality to one of entitlement rather that self-sufficiency.
The word should be stripped from our vocabulary. What one is entitled to is "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and the opportunity to create and be all one can be, not to have the government be one's provider. Of course, we must take care of those physically or mentally incapable, but not the lazy and indolent.
The liberal agenda often has these egalitarian goals that one can hardly challenge. The problem is that the implementation is always horrific due to a lack of economic understanding, and there are always the unforeseen consequences, which can be worse than the cure. One needs to be noble in thought and pragmatic in action.
Jerry Graham is a resident of Sun Valley.
