Letters: Run country like business
August 30, 2012 9:58PM
Updated: October 1, 2012 3:52PM
If you owned a business having problems growing revenue and maintaining profits, four years would be plenty of time to expect significant results. President Obama was hired almost four years ago to straighten out the economy; this is what he promised when campaigning. Let’s take the financial and auto bailout out of the picture since both Presidents Obama and Bush worked together on these.
When President Obama took office, he insisted we pass an $800 billion stimulus to keep unemployment from hitting 8 percent, unemployment has not been below 8 percent (real unemployment over 15 percent) since he took office.
President Obama promised to lower healthcare costs if we pass the Obamacare bill. We have seen insurance premiums already up 20 percent.
President Obama promised to make this the most transparent administration in history, but he is unwilling to turn over document so we can get to the bottom of “Fast and Furious.” He is also unwilling to open up the White House register so we can see who he is meeting with.
President Obama said this is not a Red America or Blue America, it is the United States of America, and he will bring the country back together.
We now live in the most divided country in our history. I am not even bringing up the housing issues, gas prices, Afghanistan or the rising murder rate in cities.
The real kicker is that President Obama has not taken responsibility for any of the failures; I call this a lack of leadership! I think we can all agree that if we were a business we would be changing the leadership, maybe we should think about this election like it was a business?
Greg Grubisich
Crest Hill
A lot of lip-flapping
Here we go again. The closer we get to elections the dirtier it gets. Both candidates talk about pension reform, health care, lower taxes and national debt. But, over last four years they did nothing about it — the same as when George W. Bush was in power.
Each candidate twists each other’s words around to get you, the voter, to vote for them.
Now, it’s about tax returns, birth certificates and “vote for me I’m the best qualified.” I don’t know about you, but it is becoming a three-ring circus, with each candidate in center ring playing the clown, so to speak.
Instead of discussing the issues ahead of us, they just flap their lips about each other. How can the more intelligent voter decide anything.
Looking back over many years this is the norm in elections. If some one asks a question of the candidate, the candidate just seems to skirt the issue and gives no definitive answer.
John Zollner
Joliet
Policy threatens safety
The hard-working members of the Illinois Department of Corrections and other public sector employees have been made the scapegoat for the state’s financial woes. Why? We voted to defer pay raises to help the state deal with its financial issues.
Unlike the state, we have not missed a single retirement contribution. We have seen our workload increased because of hiring freezes. We have been subjected to retaliatory shakedowns and investigations when we try to exercise our First Amendment rights. We have not broken the contract, unlike the governor who rescinded a negotiated pay raise. We have continued, through all of this adversity, to fulfill our duties in a professional manner.
The state would have you believe that correctional center employees are self-serving and are at the heart of the state’s current fiscal crisis. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is my humble opinion that correctional employees are being used as pawns to influence lawmakers to conform to the governor’s demands regarding pension reform and/or to pressure the union into draconian concessions. The stress being placed on prison workers as a result of these tactics borders on cruelty.
One of the state’s primary responsibilities is that of public safety. Despite comments to the contrary by spokespeople with no experience working the galleries, the current path of closing Illinois prisons will lead to an increase in violence both inside the prison system and on the street. Has this been factored into the state’s budget calculations?
And if the prison population was declining to the extent that two major facilities, and several work release centers, were no longer necessary, why was the passage of an early release bill needed? The current policy direction is extremely short sighted, threatens public safety and will have little or no impact on the budget shortfalls.
Greg Johnson, President
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 263 (IDOC)
District Trustee
Illinois State Fraternal Order
of Police
