Letters to the editor
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Republicans want freedoms for every American
David Brooks ( "On the Campaign Trail: The Best Part Is Talking to the Crowds, Not the Candidates," Jan. 18 column) is to be commended for taking the trouble to actually meet with people in the Republican crowds during the South Carolina primary campaign. He noted that many of the attendees believe we have gone astray and need to "rediscover what we had."
But for this, he introduces a negative tone: "I sometimes wonder if the Republican Party has become the receding roar of white America as it pines for a way of life that will never return." This kind of distortion of the tea party and other grass-roots Republican outlooks is all too common among the literati.
The "way of life" the typical Republican wants the country to rediscover is not a "white" thing. It is freedom, for all, from big government, regulations and out-of-control spending. When a journalist or commentator implies that a conservative impulse is "white" rather than a matter of political philosophy, his "sometimes wondering" gratuitously reinforces the divisive rhetoric of the Democrats. Let's have less wondering and more facts.
WILLIAM L. KRAYER
Mt. Lebanon
Spending hazards
Kevin McNany's claim in a Jan. 10 letter ( "Those Who Reaped the Rewards of Republican Policies Should Pay the Tab" ) that conservatives want the needy "to shoulder the burdens of the deficits and debt that enriched the 1 percent" is ludicrous because the top 1 percent of the income earners already pay almost 40 percent of all the annual federal income taxes collected and the bottom 47 percent pay no income taxes.
Furthermore, how can he believe that "2001 and 2003 tax cuts added $1.7 trillion to our national debt" when the actual tax revenue collected after the Bush tax cuts kicked in were at record levels?
Contrary to Mr. McNany's assertion, conservatives opposed the Troubled Asset Relief Program while most liberals, including Barack Obama, enthusiastically supported TARP and augmented it after President George W. Bush left office.
When President Bush took office, the federal debt stood at $5.768 trillion and when he left office it was $10.625 trillion for an increase of $4.857 trillion in eight years. Now the debt is $15.248 trillion for an increase of $4.623 trillion in only three years of the Obama presidency.
Mr. McNany erroneously suggested that supply side economics caused the 2008 financial downturn when the real cause was the Community Reconstruction Act, which was made stronger by the Clinton administration. This legislation forced banks to give loans to those who could not afford to repay them and hence caused the financial meltdown and provided moral hazards for Wall Street misconduct.
Conservatives do not want Social Security and Medicare recipients "to shoulder the burdens of the deficits and debt." But that is exactly what will happen if the big spending, big government and anti-growth policies of the Democratic Party continue in effect.
LOU NEUBERT
Indiana Township
Where's the fraud?
HB 934, the voter ID bill, is before the state Senate. To vote, this bill requires a current federal or Pennsylvania government-issued photo ID. The middle class drive cars, thus have a Pennsylvania driver's license. Who lacks one? The poor, much of the elderly and college students with licenses from other states. These groups do not reliably vote for Republicans, which explains the bill.
States can no longer bar voting by blacks, women, college kids and non-landowners. More subtle methods to suppress voting now are advocated by Pennsylvania Republicans. Lacking the right ID, you must go to a state office, sit for maybe hours, and wait your turn -- and your driver also waits. With such a burdensome waste of time, many people will fall through the cracks, which is the bill's intent. Further, what you need to get an ID is not defined, such as whether often unobtainable birth certificates will be required.
If fraudulent voting really existed, Pennsylvania could compare voting lists to tax records and utility databases, and investigate issues.
There, however, is no history of such fraud. One reason is that under existing law, poll judges and monitors check signatures against past records, and where an issue is flagged, a voter must produce an identifying document (such as an original utility bill, lease, paystub, etc.), if they do not have a photo ID. This bill thus chases a nonexistent problem.
The projected cost of this bill is many millions, including informing the public, at a time when critical state programs are being slashed. We do not need the burdens, confusion, cost and waste of time of this bill.
The right to vote is one of our most revered rights. Please urge your senator to kill this offensive bill.
ROBERT L. JENNINGS JR.
Foxburg, Armstrong County
The bigger danger
As I watch the governors of Republican-controlled states coordinate their efforts to enact voter ID laws, under the guise that they are preventing voter fraud -- even though politicians have a better chance of being attacked by a shark in Independence Hall than having an election decided by voter fraud -- I have to ask them: What is a bigger danger to the people of our nation? Voter fraud, or being killed by a gun purchased at a gun show where there was no background check to obtain the weapon of choice, no limitation on the number of weapons purchased and absolutely no way to trace them to their origin?
I'm quite sure that those Republican lawmakers will rush to close that gaping and dangerous loophole in the gun law as soon as they disenfranchise millions of people from their constitutionally protected voting rights.
Gun rights will always prevail over voting rights in Republican politics.
DAVID REESE
Ellwood City
Clean house at PSU
Regarding Bill Schackner's Jan. 18 article regarding the trustees of Penn State and when they knew of the Jerry Sandusky scandal ( "PSU Board Told of Jury in May" ): I don't know how to get in touch with the trustees but would like them to see my comments.
I feel that they are just as guilty of inaction as Joe Paterno. They should be fired also. They knew and did nothing. I think Penn State should be "cleaned out" from top to bottom and start with a clean slate.
ANDREA SMITH
Jefferson Hills
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First Published January 21, 2012 12:00 am
