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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

Policy Was Misstated

Regarding "If Not An 'Ownership Society,' Does Obama Want A Nanny State?" (Our Opinion, Sept. 4):

Your editorial was appalling, both in its ignorance and its "let them eat cake" tone.

A wise politician described government as a "tool." The president and Congress decide whether they will use this tool skillfully for good or wield it clumsily and do harm.

Obama twisted nothing about the GOP's "ownership society" policy - you misstated it. "Ownership society" is just a new moniker for "trickle-down economics" - make life better for those at the top and good things will automatically trickle down to the rest of the "working stiffs."

Well, it hasn't worked that way. My family is not better off than we were eight years ago. We, middle class, middle age, working professionals, are struggling with the rising costs of living without any parallel rise in our wages, benefits or purchasing power. Our government is not helping us out.

G. BRUCE

Tampa

Bush Doing Great Job

What a pleasure to read a positive story about our president. He has done a good job and overcome many obstacles while serving our country.

George Bush strives to empower people to get out and help themselves and their fellow citizens. This is far better than encouraging a helpless, victimized attitude. I think President Bush is doing a great job.

KATHLEEN WILLIAMS

Tampa

Not Everyone Prospers

When you are a landowner you see an ownership society; when you rent you see a tenant farmer and a land baron. Property is a finite commodity, and not everyone can be an owner at minimum wage. While some may inherit property and wealth, others may not be so lucky.

Your "ownership society" editorial presupposes that everyone can become an owner. However, in the history of human society there has never been a society in which everyone was a landowner. In life, some prosper and some don't.

But for the "ownership society" to complain that they pay higher taxes is a sad case for their character. There is not a one who would change places with those less fortunate.

GERALD A. CERVENY

Tampa

Government's Role

Under Bush, ownership of America has passed to corporations and foreign governments who hold American debt and America hostage. Shrink the size of government? Bush's government is a mortgaged monster that seeks control over much of its citizens' lives; only concern for its "subjects" has shrunk.

People work multiple jobs for less pay with less buying power while clueless leaders - and editorial departments - chant the mantra of "ownership."

Your bias is showing; Obama did not criticize the concept of ownership, just Bush's and others' disingenuous use of it as a buzzword to sell a plan that has dismantled the working class while absolving his government of any responsibility.

"Nanny society" is clever, but government need not take care of its citizens in order to care about them. You can't just proclaim "ownership" and walk away; government has responsibility to its citizens.

JACK DARKES

Temple Terrace

Oxymoronic Positions

Your lead editorial starts with this paragraph:

"People are better off if they take responsibility for their lives, finances and futures, without the expectation of a government handout. That's what President Bush espoused four years ago when he called for the creation of an "Ownership Society" that gives people more choice, more control and more ownership of government benefits such as education and Social Security."

In the first sentence you say that people should avoid government handouts and in the second you tell us that we should take more control of those handouts mentioning specifically education and Social Security. The entire paragraph is an oxymoron.

I could go on to show you that many Americans are in fact controlling their own lives and avoiding those very handouts you mention. But it seems to me that you really do want the nanny state to be the guarantor of an equal handout and equal life for all regardless of how well or poorly various people make use of their natural abilities.

MIKE TEDESCO

Tampa

Disturbed By Editorial

I was shocked and deeply disturbed by the Sept. 4 editorial; your writers have their heads in the sand regarding the performance of the Bush administration and the promise of more of the same from John McCain.

The Tribune is defending an administration whose radical hostility to government regulation brought us federal fiascos like the subprime mortgage mess and the financial market upheaval of the past year.

I'm a 61-year-old self-employed woman who cannot afford health insurance. Do not tell me I am not on my own because it is abundantly clear I am. I'm an independent voter who cannot take more Republican indifference to the increasingly grim realities of life for average working Americans.

M.T. RAMOS

Tampa

Middle Class Forgotten

Your editorial seems to ignore a point which most Americans have come to acknowledge as fact: This administration has completely lost touch with the economic plight of the American middle class. You need to understand that when the president talks about an "ownership society," he does not mean that all will share equally - or even fairly - in the fruits of their labors. Certainly one can say, without much argument that the lion's share of the wealth in this country has shifted away from the middle class to the upper 10 percent of Americans. In America the middle class might own, but what they own is worth a lot less when compared to what they've had before.

This administration has only been good to those who have put cash in its pocket, the rest of us be damned.

RENE J. TAMARGO

Tampa

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