LETTERS: Shutdown blame goes to Democrats

To the editor:

The gist of many letters to the editor lately is that the government shutdown was created by a silly partisan squabble, with both sides to blame. Democrats in the Senate, behind Majority Leader Harry Reid, shut down the government after the Republican-majority House passed a bill fully funding the government, including the military, veterans’ benefits and national parks that President Barack Obama petulantly closed.

The Republican-led House only defunded Obamacare 2.0, the illegally butchered version of Obamacare that excused Democrat crony campaign contributors and subsidized Congress — but not ordinary citizens. This is the Obama/Reid shutdown. Period.

LYNN MUZZY

MINDEN

Government gridlock

To the editor:

I’m really fed up with the blame for the gridlock in Washington, D.C., being blamed on Republicans and lately the tea party. I think a little lesson in the way things at the federal level are supposed to work is in order.

Per the Constitution, Article 1, section 7, paragraph 1: “All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other bills.” The House has proposed numerous bills to resolve the current situation. Those bills are supposed to come up for a vote in the Senate — that’s what “concur” means in the quote from the Constitution. The Senate can also amend the bills and send them back to the House for another vote.

Neither of these things has happened because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will not allow the bills to come to the floor for an up-or-down vote. Politically, with a midterm election looming, he’s fearful that some of his allies will vote in favor of one of those bills. Practically, that’s obstructionist. So to blame Republicans is ridiculous. The blame for the current standoff falls squarely on Sen. Reid’s shoulders. The original tea party, on Dec. 16, 1773, was a protest about big government forcing its will on free people.

The Republicans elected to the House through the efforts of the tea party are doing what the majority of their constituents want them to do. The tea party is a loose assembly of people who believe in reducing the size of government, cutting taxes and reducing regulation, while increasing personal responsibility and personal initiative. In other words, the tea party wants what the founders of this country envisioned for all of us.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is not about patient care; it’s about control of the lives of all the citizens of this country. Decisions about your health will be in the hands of bureaucrats, not you or your doctor. This is exactly what the tea party was brought about to oppose. Educate yourself, and let’s put the blame exactly where it belongs: on a runaway federal government that thinks it knows how to run your life better than you do.

ART GISI

LAS VEGAS

Putting Reids first

To the editor:

So let me get this straight: First, the city of Henderson lowers the requirements for candidates applying for the city attorney position, so that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s son, Josh Reid, could be considered. Of course he was selected.

Now, the city of Las Vegas has “quietly negotiated” with Key Reid — another son of Sen. Reid — about changes to longstanding policy regarding use of city soccer fields (“City backs Reid’s son on soccer field usage,” Oct. 10 Review-Journal). I’m not sure which is worse — the blatant nepotism by Harry Reid or the fact that other people go along with it.

MARK KARRIS

LAS VEGAS