ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 14, 1996 TAG: 9610140100
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: READERS' FORUM
What's missing is the truth
THE TRUTH, as they know it, on all issues. Stop spinning answers to fit the latest poll. We, the voters, are not naive about misleading political polling. Promises of the moon, if you can deliver like John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
J. KEITH BOHON
ROANOKE
What's to prevent repeat of scandals?
* THE SAVINGS-and-loan scandal of late 1980s into the 1990s. What was the cost? Who was convicted? What have we done to prevent its reoccurrence?
*The Housing and Urban Development scandal. What was the cost? Who was convicted? What have we done to prevent its reoccurrence? Jack Kemp should have some answers.
* The fraud in Medicare and Medicaid? What was the cost? Who was convicted? What have we done to prevent its reoccurrence?
The voter, the taxpayer, cannot plan to build the bridges the candidates refer to while the candidates and their political allies are using silly putty and marshmallows for bridge supports.
Uncover the cover-up and face the issues!
FERDIE G. TANNER
SALEM
Risks abound in welfare reform
AS THE candidates vie to be tougher-than-thou on ``reforming'' welfare, little has been said about protecting the vulnerable in our society from hunger and homelessness.
Drastic cuts in federal subsidies for low-income housing in the 1980s have widened the affordability gap for housing for the working poor. Moving people from welfare to low-paying jobs may reduce government spending, but it doesn't assure decent housing.
Loss of food stamps for significant numbers threatens to push more and more people into already overburdened soup kitchens. Can the private sector absorb this influx?
With shifting much of the burden of the safety net from the federal to the state level, how will states respond? Compete in the race to the bottom? Much has been said for improving the education of the work force so that incomes will rise. While this may help some in the long run, what about the short run?
The candidates must address these issues, because the consequences of neglect are morally reprehensible and socially dangerous.
ELIZABETH FETTER
ROANOKE
Let's have truth in economics
BOTH MAJOR presidential candidates have ignored the facts that both parties have found academically accredited economists to make delusionarily optimistic forecasts in favor of their party's proposals.
John Kennedy's so-called Keynesians mispredicted that his deficits wouldn't lead to accelerating inflation; and Ronald Reagan's supply-siders mispredicted his tax cuts wouldn't cause a huge deficit.
Academic economics is a perpetual debate society in which both sides agree on a false hypothesis and ignore, squeeze out or persecute dissenters who won't accept the false hypothesis.
The truth that has been excluded is that the economy is far from perfectly competitive. Government deficit spending temporarily stimulates the economy, not from Keynesian or supply-side reasons, but by increasing employment in overpriced sectors where prices and wages are much higher than opportunity costs.
Democrats do not want their labor-union backers exposed as creating the problem that Democrats say they are going to solve, Republicans don't want to stop the onslaught of anti-competitive mergers their corporate backers want, and neither party wants to admit that most (not all) high-wage workers do not contribute as much to the economy as they are paid, after correcting figures for the economy's noncompetitiveness.
As a side example, the American Nobel Prize winners who unanimously backed the North American Free Trade Agreement didn't tell the public that, according to their own models, free trade between a rich nation (America) and a poor nation (Mexico) always reduces the average wage of the rich nation's workers to the benefit of the rich nation's capitalists.
JOHN S. PETTENGILL
BLACKSBURG
Get serious about the national debt
THE SINGLE most important issue ignored by all candidates is the national debt. It continues to take more and more of our tax dollars to keep up with interest payments, yet our legislators continue to pad the budget with pork while failing to bite the bullet and significantly reduce the size of government and the spending for same.
We must realize that reducing taxes, while increasing spending on various projects, won't work. We will eventually be reduced to a Third World nation wallowing in its debt with no way out.
FRED H. BURTNER
BLACKSBURG
The powerful line their own pockets
THE PENSION that members of Congress and ex-presidents receive is an outrage. They worry constantly about welfare cheats and food-stamp fraud, yet they themselves refuse to lower their pensions.
Let's let the politicians live on Social Security like everybody else and see how well they manage.
JERRY JOHNSON
ABINGDON
Workers' woes are overlooked
THE PLIGHT of white and blue-collar American workers used to be that if you worked hard and were a loyal employee, you were rewarded. No more!
Do we have to reinstate unions to give workers a fair shake? How much has been contributed to this situation by our corporations in other countries that pay sweatshop wages?
EDNESS M. WEBB
ROANOKE
Promote solidarity among Americans
ONE THING that's most ignored is how to promote the solidarity of our nation.
We the people are the subjects of the Preamble of the Constitution and also the objective of all the ideals of the Constitution, the foundation of our nation. Since time changes, social issues change and people also change.
Two hundred years ago, we the people included only those who came from some European countries to settle in North America. Later, we the people included Native Americans, freed slaves from Africa and various people from all over the world. The United States is now a miniature of the world society that includes various people and their cultures.
At a time when we already have all kinds of issues that concern ethnic groups, religious groups, racial groups, genders, seniors and children, if members of every group insist on their entitlements of rights and benefits and don't care about the other groups, the government may face bankruptcy or become crippled. Who should be sacrificed or forfeited?
It isn't the president, a single person or a small group of representatives and senators who can make someone a sacrifice. We the people have to watch out for the needs of the nation, and cooperate in conforming with the law and keeping the order of our society. We should work out the solidarity of our nation, starting with our families, classrooms and communities. With God's help and the faith of individuals, we will keep righteousness in our daily living by encouraging everyone to be active - as if he or she is a policeman, a judge or a teacher.
The political campaign isn't just for the purpose of electing the president or congresssman but to promote solidarity among the different interests.
CHOW-SOON CHUANG JU
LEXINGTON
Campaign finance in need of reform
ELECTION REFORM. What can be done about the problem of candidates openly and brazenly prostituting themselves for political-action committees' money? Do they consider this a real threat to plain, common decency in local, state and federal halls of democracy?
Would they support some ideas that Ralph Nader and Ross Perot have espoused? Namely, will they support campaign-finance bills that will eliminate PAC contributions? Such legislation will eliminate legalized bribery and the corrupting influence PACs and the rich now have. If candidates consider this a normal and proper way to finance campaigns, then why are so many people outraged and suspicious of what most of them are now doing to get money in an illicit way?
R. BROOKS McGHEE
GOODVIEW
Safety of our food is questionable
THE SAFETY of our food, water and the products we use every day.
In my opinion, the Democrats and Republicans have sold out to the multinational conglomerates (like allowing Monsanto to pollute our milk supply with growth hormones), and now we can't trust our government to protect us from bodily harm. It allows genetic engineering of our food, cancer-causing chemicals and other cancer-causing risk factors, and allows companies to do their own testing and sell their products to us without warnings or labels.
I want our candidates at every level of government to address the safety of our food and water and other harmful substances in our environment that affect every citizen's health.
RUBY H. SMITH
ROANOKE
Defense issues need more focus
ONE CRITICAL issue receiving little attention is America's lack of any defense against ballistic-missile attack. In approximately seven years, North Korea will likely have a missile capable of reaching most of the cities in North America. In the coming decades, any number of unfriendly, unstable countries may acquire the ability to hit us with missiles. In spite of this, Bill Clinton has vetoed every effort by Congress to begin building a comprehensive defense against this threat. For this reason alone, he should be retired as soon as possible.
Regarding the abortion issue: I believe if America continues its slaughter of the unborn, we will surely come under judgment from the one who created life. To their shame, Bob Dole and the Republican ``moderates'' are downplaying this issue. Still, better to vote for Dole than ``late-term-Bill'' Clinton, the abortionists' best friend.
What about the issue of women in combat? In Norfolk recently, I saw a guided-missile cruiser that was there, I was told, to be outfitted with special quarters so women could serve aboard it. Forget for a moment the waste of tax money, and the morale and discipline problems sure to result from this craziness. Instead, consider this: In war, one torpedo or missile hit would probably be enough to sink a ship of that size. And then the charred bodies floating in the water would include young women.
If that's your vision for America, then vote for Clinton and his secretary of defense, William Perry. It is hoped there are enough people left with common sense to realize Clinton's way isn't the direction a civilized nation should go.
TOM TAYLOR
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Long : 202 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENTby CNB