Letters: We won’t be fooled again
June 9, 2012 8:50PM
Updated: July 11, 2012 6:04AM
Mitt Romney is trying to claim credit for Barack Obama’s rescue of the auto industry, but we won’t be fooled. We remember speech after speech by Romney, ridiculing government involvement, but we certainly won’t forget Nov. 18, 2008, when Romney put it in writing in The New York Times, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”
Kudos go to Obama. Because of his insight he saved more than a million jobs. Those taxpayer dollars were well spent and have all been paid back, and GM now is the No. 1 automobile manufacturer in the world.
Obama has created more overall jobs in less than four years than George W. Bush created in eight. And while Bush lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs, Obama has created a half million. Under Obama, our economy has experienced 26 consecutive months of private-sector job growth. That’s no evening mentioning the fact that, after starting with a surplus, Bush policies created $7 trillion in debt while Obama policies created only $1.7 trillion.
Obama cares about the average worker; not like Romney whose modus operandi is to fire the little guy, then take the money and run — no sting of conscience. The only thing Romney cares about is the car elevator in his California mansion. Or is it his New Hampshire mansion? Or is it his two Massachusetts mansions?
According to last year’s tax records, I found I am paying the same tax rate as Romney, which is un-American. No wonder he refuses to release his tax records from years ago. They probably show he paid even less. One of the reasons he cannot relate to everyday people is he has never been one.
Gloria Weidner
Wilmington
Heading back to Sodom
This is in regard to Diana Teeter’s May 29 letter, “Gay marriage not a threat.” Homosexuals and their misguided straight supporters have turned reality upside down when it comes to homosexuality. Some day people are going to look back at these weird times and wonder how pro-homosexual people got away with offending people of color by comparing them to people who voluntarily engage in sexually aberrant behavior. Many blacks are fed up with being compared to heterophobic people who voluntarily engage in homosexual behavior.
They’ll also wonder how pro-homosexual people got away with comparing physiologically unnatural behavior that has negative health consequences to physiologically natural heterosexual behavior. For example, male homosexuals have an above normal anal cancer rate and lesbians have an above normal breast cancer rate.
They’ll also wonder how pro-homosexual people could label decent, moral people logically opposed to so-called “gay rights” as bigots, especially when it is pro-homosexual people who offend blacks with bogus comparisons and who offend people who adhere to reasonable moral values. Where does the true bigotry lie?
They’ll wonder how pro-homosexual people could actually think they are progressive, when they want to take us back thousands of years to Sodom. Unreal.
Wayne Lela
Woodridge
Fund pensions locally
In a recent letter, state Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) said asking local school districts to pay for the pensions of their employees would lead to an “inherent property tax increase.” Not true.
We must end the practice of school districts handing out end-of-career salary spikes and pension sweeteners, only to have the state pick up the higher retirement costs. That practice has destroyed spending accountability across the state.
Illinois Policy Institute research found that state-funded pension contributions overwhelmingly favor the wealthiest school districts with the highest employee compensation packages. We’re not against higher pay, but taxpayers in poorer communities shouldn’t be on the hook for North Shore pension costs. Local districts should be accountable for the benefits of their employees.
Opponents of local pension accountability warn of doomsday scenarios. But in covering the “normal cost” of pensions, school districts would on average see total expenses increase by just 3.7 percent. That’s hardly catastrophic.
There are a myriad of ways to find efficiencies and avoid property tax increases. We should start with what Brady recommends, benefit reforms. Each school board should examine what it spends on health care benefits, accumulated sick leave and other generous perks.
Taxpayers shouldn’t fear taking on the costs of teacher pensions at the local level. They should fear keeping Springfield in control.
Ted Dabrowski
Vice president of policy
Illinois Policy Institute
