Letters to the editor: The collapsing safety net

Letter to the Editor

The collapsing safety net

Regarding "Class warfare" (Your Views, May 25): I would like to add one more thing to blame the Republicans for: the laws of mathematics. When I was in school back in the '60s and '70s we knew that the boomers would eventually spike the retirement population. We knew they would require more health care. We knew people would probably live longer, and technology would be more expensive.

Anyone who took a basic statistics course could prove overly generous government pensions would eventually bankrupt cities and counties, and they have. It was obvious that some union retirement programs would eventually bankrupt school districts and private companies, and they have.

A safety net is only good if you have more people holding the net than are jumping in. The Bible says, "The wicked borrows and does not repay." What we are doing to the next generation is morally wrong. Whatever their reasoning, whatever their intent, our elected officials have failed to plan ahead.

Now we must hold their feet to the fire and force them to make ugly choices for the very survival of our nation.

Mike Carlson

Weeki Wachee

State and federal challenges

Liberals are known for insults and slurs when faced with something they do not like. Our beloved governor, Rick Scott, is "Skeletor" to Tribune columnist Steve Otto. Well, Steve, face the fact that Florida elected and supports our governor. His sincere and wholehearted efforts to restore fiscal responsibility, ethics and morals in Florida must by definition hurt some people who fed off the excess of the past.

Florida is starting to get on the right track. We need to support our governor without having to put up with liberals' interference and insults.

Washington is a bigger mess. Trying to get $2 billion a year from Big Oil on tax breaks while granting Egypt's new government dollar amounts in excess of this is a Washington administration fallacy. All foreign aid must be suspended until we balance the budget. The oil-rich Middle East should be asked to send us money instead of receiving aid dollars from us.

We have become a nation of cowards hoping to buy friendships from sworn enemies. We need not punish Americans, rich or poor, or American business while wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid.

Lou Christodoulou

Apollo Beach

Heading off the cliff

It is amazing how Kool-Aid-drinking progressives like Richard Primuth ("Class warfare," Your Views, May 25) continue to press the mantra that Republicans want to destroy the labor movement, limit voting rights and end Medicare, etc.

Republicans want to try to get the budget under control, something the Democrats are ignoring. I see Republicans wanting to make sure women are given all the information available to them regarding abortion. I see Republicans trying to save Medicaid and Social Security; both plans are in trouble, and yet for some strange reason Democrats once again are ignoring the problem and acting like there is nothing wrong. The Republicans are trying to reign in voter fraud, and the Democrats and, I'm sad to say, the Tribune, seem not to understand.

Do I think the Republicans are perfect? No. I think millionaires should pay more, among other things, but the Democrats, with their heads in the clouds, seem to be hellbent on driving our economy off the cliff.

Peter Stathis

Spring Hill

Judgment Day

May 21, 2011, has come and gone, just like the days before it. Without incident, some now must reconvene for another attempt at terrorizing the non-believers that rapture is still their/our only salvation.

Harold Camping's attempts to reconcile the true meaning of Judgment Day have less and less effect as each of his predictions fails to materialize in the battle between Good and Evil. Armageddon has failed once again.

The followers of Camping and the true believers of God's Judgment Day may never reconcile, but his own hidden fear of death has convinced others that his day, too, will come. Remember, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

Paul Mitchell

Thonotosassa

Ticketed for education

Weekly, it seems, we hear from this expert or that police chief touting the need for red-light cameras in our communities. There are statistics on both sides as to the safety features. Let's see how serious about safety our community leaders are. Why not take the revenue generated by these devices and put it toward education?

In fact, why not take all the revenue from all traffic violations and give it to our school districts to help with the cost of education? Now we have a program that really benefits the community.

James T. Woods

Brooksville

'A colossal earmark'

I admire Gen. Chuck Horner's life of service and combat heroism, but he is misinformed about the need for an extra engine for the F-35 fighter ("Our armed forces deserve the best, so provide it," Other Views, May 24). He refers to the added engine for the F-16 30 years ago as a business model for the F-35 today. But that competition was a one-time anomaly in defense procurement under unique circumstances that do not exist today. This is akin to fighting today's war with yesterday's strategy, flawed thinking in warfare and defense procurement.

No military aircraft or helicopter in production today has an extra engine. They never pay for themselves, and they add costs for duplicate training, maintenance and logistics. The current engine is meeting all its performance and cost numbers.

Special interests in Congress are attempting to add billions for an extra engine that the Pentagon, White House and operators of the F-35 consider unneeded and wasteful. It is an industrial giveaway, a colossal earmark, which, if resurrected after its defeat by both houses of Congress earlier this year, will result in many fewer F-35s needed by our war fighters. That's an outcome every general should deplore.

John Michael Loh

Williamsburg, Va.