Letters: We must keep our freedom
April 27, 2012 9:36PM
Updated: May 30, 2012 8:05AM
Our constitutional right of religious freedom must remain unchallenged. President Barack Obama apparently believes he and Washington politicians and bureaucrats, by their supposed authority, can compromise, circumvent and force accommodation of our inalienable right (God-given) to freedom of religion, one of the major tenets of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.
The president and his cronies are trying to chip away at our inalienable rights. That can only lead to persecution and tyranny.
Edward McLoughan Sr.
Shorewood
Leading business astray
I have had an enjoyable “ping-pong” match with Donald Torrence on this Viewpoint page. My contention has consistently been that our economic woes have been a collaborative effort — private sector acting predictably to increasingly intrusive and counterproductive public initiatives. Mr. Torrence seemingly gives the government’s roll a pass.
The “current market” Mr. Torrence derides isn’t a capitalist model, but some sort of cobbled exchange, whereby firms either can’t figure out what new state-created hurdles they’re to endure next or they’re competing against government cronies.
The “rules” he decries are not market contrivances, but statutes, fiats, extra-constitutional bureaucratic decisions, programs or initiatives designed to “help” the economy — oft times having the opposite result.
The market is no longer allowed to correct itself by purging the inefficient and overpriced. Firms are lured by government assurances into risky undertakings they would never otherwise assume, only to be vilified in the ensuing catastrophe.
Firms are taxed then crucified when prices rise; hounded by ideology-driven regulatory schemes (nearing religious doctrine); and hammered by soaring nonmarket costs of marginal labor.
Hear me well ... regulating interstate commerce is the purveyance of the federal government. However, one would hope it’d be for betterment, not grand egalitarian redistribution, confiscatory tribute or to ensure top-down control.
Managing the economy is government’s folly — complete with an abysmal real world track record — bound to collapse under its own weight.
This leads to hardship, desperation, surrender of individual liberties under the guise of security and, ultimately, tyranny and bondage.
Randall F. Barron, Jr.
Joliet
We must protect the future
We need politicians working for us to define practical plans and implement solutions that will keep our country prosperous. We need to address debt, the economy, the future of Social Security, Medicare, our military, education, healthcare reform and jobs. We have four generations of Americans seeking appropriate next steps to protect our future.
Government continues to raise the debt ceiling every year. Businesses and families have budgets that must be followed. Washington is letting us down. These guys need someone to run the numbers and present the facts that will lead to adjustments we must make. Define a budget, determine where to cut spending, define tax reform and find ways to encourage business growth.
Recent Social Security tax breaks, as a plan, were flawed. This is an example where politicians could have reduced taxes but raised the ceiling of maximum contribution to sustain the program. Less funding for this program will only hasten financial disaster.
Healthcare reform has attributes needed by Americans. Insurability with pre-existing conditions, lifetime maximum exclusions, moving individual to group accounts to reduce rates and insuring children to age 26 are reasonable adjustments that can benefit families.
We already have witnessed and paid for some of this through increases/adjustments by the insurance industry. However, the funding model is flawed, with new tax increases, shifting some Medicare funding, mandatory participation and imposing new/lower capitation fees for services. This is another example of politicians not thinking this through.
Businesses have budget-neutral solutions or return on investment justifications to launch change in their respective industries. Running our government should have a similar responsibility.
Duane Wilson
Lockport
