Traverse City Record-Eagle

Your Views

February 11, 2012

Letters to the editor: 02/11/2012

----

Throw them all out

A new book titled "Throw Them All Out," by Peter Schweizer, has exposed (backed up by detailed references) the corruption, favoritism, crony capitalism, land deals and insider trading now going on in Washington.

Such behavior and activities will send anyone to prison, except politicians.

They have legislated themselves as untouchables and exempt from the same laws that apply to everyone else.

As for the White House, President Obama has taken cronyism to a record high level.

He proclaimed in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that "decisions about how recovery money will be spent will be based strictly on the merits — not doled out to political friends."

Surprise! As an example of only one stimulus program, the Department of Energy doled out more than 80 percent of its grants and loans ($20 billion as of Sept. 15, 2011) to firms controlled or owned by fundraisers, bundlers and political allies of Obama.

The saddest part of the way politicians are running our country is that millionaire and billionaire friends of government are increasing their wealth many times over using taxpayer money — not their own.

Robert Bremer

Rapid City

Losing our liberties

If someone wanted to destroy America, how would they do it? War is not an option because it destroys the infrastructure and kills off millions of people who could serve as potential slaves in the world of tomorrow.

Isn't this really a war of the rich against the poor, instead of a war between the conservatives and the liberals?

The Republican National Committee knows they cannot beat Obama, so they have engineered a type of reality TV to distract voters and keep us from seeing that the real power is in controlling Congress.

Meanwhile, Harry Reid and John Boehner just cut a clandestine deal that eviscerated collective bargaining rights.

Step by step, huge chunks of our liberties are being stripped from us.

Soon, a "savior" (small "s") will magically appear to become the Republican candidate. People will be so tired of the discourse they will vote for anybody.

Before long, the American voter won't even be necessary because the shaping of policy will be guided entirely by economic interests via Super PACs.

It's like watching a mosquito sitting on your hand and believing it's not going to bite you until the blood appears in its body.

God help us, America.

William E. Scott

Traverse City

Text Only