Letters to the editor 9-6

Americans stuck with lawmakers' leftover cake

What's with this ridiculous health care plan? Vote no. Or let's start a Civil Rights war. What no one, including our president, seems to get is change takes time.

How many voting Americans read this plan? A phone town meeting? I even wonder if President Obama read it?

Some folks do get it, though. Nevada Appeal readers Ronald Feldstein, Ruth Ailes, John Vettel, Virginia Scott, Lee Elliott, Stuart Posselt and William Frerking's recent letters all have a good say.

While Congress plays, we pay.

Think about it. What if all elected officials, including the president, cut their pay, forever pensions, and had the same health care package they now push on us? I know I'd feel better about being American rather than eating leftover cake.

America is in bad shape when our government officials vote quietly to increase their pay. Isn't this an attempt to placate us with shiny beads and niggling stimulus packages, while they remain untouchable and exempt?

Isn't it time our government proves they work for us? Common-sense Americans are angry. This is more than health care reform. We want real change - no increase in national debt.

What to do? Fire them next election. Or how about paying all government officials with IOUs until they are worthy of a pay raise?

Barbara Griffiths

Gardnerville

All bills should pass Constitution muster

Government is not the problem. A very interesting statement, but is it true? Not in my book. In my view, it is not the solution. It is the problem.

Hey, who made the bad loans, and all this stimulus spending? Both Bush and the present bunch.

A partial solution to our problem is a return to our constitutional republic, basically Section 8 dealing with enumerated powers, which explains what the federal government can do. Beyond that, Amendment 10 says it is reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

So how did we get so far from our constitutional republic? Well, the folks in Washington, D.C., simply use the Constitution as they wish.

A friend in college reported that a professor said we cannot follow the Constitution because the word definitions in 1776 were different. To that end, I reread the enumerated powers section (about 20 items) and the 10th Amendment - they are clear to me. In the Declaration, men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights and among these are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. That can't be understood?

Walter Williams, Ph.D. in economics, reports: Studies indicate that if the feds had gone by the Constitution, the fed budget would be one-third of what it is. That money would stay here in Nevada. It might be available to local government.

Please, also, support SB 3159 and HR 456. They call for all bills in Congress to pass Constitution muster.

Tony Klein

Minden

In America, united we stand, divided we fall

I'm writing the following because of my frustration with our government and us as a people. The greed, the continuous corruption, the lack of accountability, the deregulation of corporations, banking, housing, Wall Street and the FCC.

What were we thinking when passing the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999? It repealed the Glass-Stiegel Act of 1933, which was put in place to prevent what happened during the Great Depression from ever happening again. The blaming and finger pointing - where will it end?

But the worst is the division and hatred spewed over our airwaves. I've had more than one conversation with people in our community telling me, "It's good I'm having this conversation with you because I need to know what the enemy is thinking." That is totally unacceptable. We are not enemies. We may disagree, but we all want to do our best for our country.

Think of it as we're in a foxhole where ancestry, color, preference of religion or political party doesn't matter. We're all Americans. As situations arise, we need to assess, then put it on the table and beat it up, act, follow through and follow up - without blaming, and instead figure out the cause and corrective action.

So let's start acting like we're in a foxhole. Because as a people and elected officials, together we are America. Remember, united we stand, divided we fall.

Rory Cass

Carson City

Not reading bills has been happening forever

An issue has arisen of late regarding our congressmen and senators not reading bills. I would suggest this isn't a new phenomenon, but has been going on for decades, perhaps longer. The reasons for this neglect are many: "I just don't have time," "They are too technical and hard to read," "The issue doesn't concern my state," "I have staff to do that."

A major part of this non-reading issue is the way the political system works. When you take your marching orders from the leadership, why bother to read the bill(s). They know how you will vote. Should you have the courage or audacity to break away from the leadership, your chances of having a bill you authored being supported probably disappears, as well as funding for your re-election efforts.

A couple of suggestions:

• Require every legislator to sign an affidavit stating they will read each bill in its entirety before voting.

• Require anyone who authors a bill, or portion thereof, to have their name and who they represent attached to the bill.

Should this be implemented, I hazard a guess that the length of bills would quickly be reduced. It could also occur that the lobbyist who wrote or caused to have written it would be much more cautious about their demands.

Of course, the above suggestions would never be implemented. Our legislators are not known for imposing restrictions upon themselves or their friends, for it is their friends who supply the money for the next election.

Don Dallas

Virginia Highlands