5-star LTTE on republican hypocrisy from the Columbus Dispatch

[mwb970]

Big problems call for big government
(Columbus Dispatch, May 24, 2010)

We have seen the devastating oil slick get larger and closer to the Louisiana coast. At the same time, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called for more federal assistance. This is the same Jindal who called for lower taxes and complained about a federal government that was too large.

Conservatives perennially call for lower taxes, but where do they think the government gets the money to help states such as Louisiana? The Republican Party has chosen a strategy of calling for reduced government when out of power and then expanding government when in power. Republicans say they want the budget balanced, but they run up huge debts when in power. Former Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both did it.

Three of the largest contributors to federal budget deficits are Bush's tax cuts, his Medicare prescription-drug-benefits program and his questionable war in Iraq. It is difficult to understand how there can be a significant segment of the American people that does not realize this Republican hypocrisy.

At the same time that Republicans are expanding government, they are trying to make it impotent. Remember “Heckuva job, Brownie” (former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown)? If you don't want an agency to succeed, you defund it and you put incompetent people in charge.

When a huge hurricane devastates several states and the response is poor, Republicans say that government does not work and departments should be combined or eliminated. All this is done while increasing spending.

Hurricane Katrina and this oil slick should be enough to show that we need the federal government to be efficient and large enough to handle natural emergencies.

Remember in November the party trying to make life in these United States better for you and for your children.

JOHN LYTLE
Columbus

Now here's a guy who really gets it!

[opihimoimoi]

1. The GOPers are ignorant Bullies who want it all THEIR WAY...selfish to the bone and arrogant to boot

[Scuba]

2. Good for John Lytle !!!!!

[ejpoeta]

3. i myself have noticed this. didn't jindal say the stimulus was bad and

say he didn't want it!!! but now he wants federal money. and the republicans want no government interference in private companies, but are complaining that obama didn't get right in there after the oil disaster down there.... wouldn't that be government interference? Personally i think it should have been like the fire department.... come in and take care of the problem. fire department doesnt wait at the side for the owner to see what's wrong. the fire department doesn't wait for the owner to try to put it out first and take their word for it that it's been put out. maybe if it was just a fire in a garbage can or something. but if flames were coming out of the windows, the fire department would be there with their hoses.

I think part of the problem is that there seems to be no emergency plan for this mess. And the government agencies seem to have no emergency plan in place either. So while they try to figure out what to do, the gulf is being decimated.

[SpiralHawk]

4. k and r

good letter

[Poiuyt]

5. K&R

[southern_belle]

6. K & R

[lfairban]

7. I can't believe this got published in the Dogpatch.

n/t

[mwb970]

8. Here's another LTTE published the same day....

Republicans, Palin had their opportunity
(Columbus Dispatch, May 24, 2010)

It is said that actions speak louder than words. I was reminded of that while reading the Chicago Tribune article “Palin waves her anti-abortion flag at Obama,” in the Saturday Dispatch. It is instructive to understand that when holding a majority in Congress and on the Supreme Court and with a Republican president, Republicans made no attempt to overturn abortion rights, nor was any immigration reform passed.

The party of no, indeed.

Now here comes Republican Sarah Palin speaking untruths about Obama's health-care plan with regard to government subsidizing abortion while revisiting her election pit-bull comment, this time using a “mama grizzly bear” analogy.

This from someone who quit as governor of Alaska. Yes, actions do speak louder than words. Much louder.

MICHAEL NEWLAND
Columbus

And on top of those two, there was another good one about how beneficial the health-care provision about young adults remaining on their parents' health insurance is. A red-letter day! Makes up for the days when all the letters are from wingnuts.