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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 13, 2009

Key to recovery

As every other recession has taught us, technological innovation is the key to financial recovery. New methods, products, entire industries - often led by small businesses - are born during lean financial times and are a testament to the ingenuity of the American worker.

Many people don't realize the strong support the federal government lends to spur such scientific and technological innovation in our universities, national and military labs and entrepreneurial ventures. High-risk, high-payoff research and development requires the long investment horizon that only the government can bear, and the return on investment enjoyed by the taxpayer is phenomenal: Some estimates show a 40:1 return.

In April, I visited the office of Congresswoman Kathy Castor to advocate for this investment in innovation. In particular, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the "stimulus" bill) is a terrific step forward, giving federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy the resources needed to innovate and educate ourselves out of the current recession.

I wish to thank Castor for her support of these provisions of the stimulus bill and encourage continuing support for the innovation needed to restore our economy.

ALEX A. VOLINSKY

Tampa

Recession history

The mainstream media and the Democrats feel that our current recession is the responsibility of the Bush administration. They are wrong.

The Democratic Congress and Jimmy Carter, in the 1970s, passed the Community Reinvestment Act, which told lending institutions to lower their standards regarding borrowers' income and assets. It worked pretty well because lenders required some backing from borrowers.

This all changed when Bill Clinton became president.

People with no assets and little income were encouraged to buy homes. We all remember the salesmen saying that no income and bad credit were no problem. Soon these buyers found that they could not keep up with their payments and defaulted on their loans. This was multiplied many times, which started the recession.

President Bush and John McCain warned about these problems but were overlooked by the Democratic Congress. Three years ago, before the crisis began, Democrats Barney Frank and Chris Dodd said everthing was going just fine. How wrong they were.

So the housing bubble that burst in 2006 and led to our financial crisis can be traced back to the Democrats encouraging people to buy houses they could not afford.

PALMER HUGHES

Osprey

Work to succeed

Just about all President Obama said in his nationally televised back-to-school address was pretty sound advice for students who tuned in. Only one discordant note with absolutely no political significance detracted from an otherwise upbeat, inspirational message.

Despite the humorous tone, I believe he was unwise to warn against thinking that rapping or basketball or being a reality star might be a ticket to success, "when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things."

The astounding success so many enterprising and energetic young people have achieved in careers of sports, entertaining and the like offer much evidence to the contrary. He might better have told kids to set whatever goal suits them and then simply work as hard as possible to succeed.

Isn't this what the president himself did?

JEFF CORYDON

Tampa

Health care strategy

Since the fear of losing their present health coverage is what is driving the opposition to health care reform, the president should remind everyone, in plain language, that they are already very vulnerable. It will steer the debate in favor of change.

Under our current system of employer-based care, typically the breadwinner of the family provides health insurance to the family through his job. If a child gets sick, treatment is administered and life goes on.

But if the breadwinner of the family gets sick - too sick to work - the entire family loses health coverage. They can continue coverage by paying COBRA at twice the price they were paying, but remember, there is no money coming in.

Hopefully the breadwinner recovers and can eventually get back to work, but now he has a pre-existing condition and might not be able to get a private insurance plan at any price.

Too many people in the United States have had this experience where they first lose their job, which means they lose their insurance, and as the bills mount, they eventually lose their home. The wealthiest nation in the world can do better than a health care system that leaves everyone vulnerable.

ED GOEBEL

St. Petersburg

The writer is an associate professor at the University of South Florida.

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