LETTERS: Reid hardly the arbiter of ethics

Sen. Harry Reid lecturing others on morals and ethics? You’ve got to be kidding (“Reid: ‘Power of ideas will trump Trump,’” Friday Review-Journal). Sen. Reid might be among the most unethical people to ever walk the halls of Congress, yet now talks about how Republicans need to develop some moral backbone.

Sen. Reid has no qualms about stretching the truth on the floor of the Senate for political purposes. He has used the levers of government to enrich himself while his constituents have suffered, and he is known to utilize cut-throat tactics to amass political power.

In fact, what we are seeing is the exact reason we need people like Donald Trump to run and win. We need to get rid of corrupt, lifetime politicians like Sen. Harry Reid — politicians who epitomize all that is wrong with our system of governance. We need to get rid of backroom-dealing elected officials — both Republican and Democrat — who use D.C. power to amass personal wealth and stick it to the rest of us.

We need to get rid of double-speak hypocrites who have completely lost the ability to tell it like it is. Every word out of Sen. Reid’s mouth is uttered for his own personal gain. Sen. Reid speaking of ethics and morality? If that doesn’t make your head spin, nothing will.

Joseph Schillmoeller

Las Vegas

‘Free-riders’ a misnomer

Regarding the letter from Steven G. Hayes Sr. (“Income tax free-riders,” Monday Review-Journal), according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 38 million people in this country who are under 18 and, presumably, not working. There are more than 40 million people over 65 who are likely retired and living on Social Security and/or living off of the money they wisely saved during their working life, on which they have already paid taxes.

There are more than 21 million stay-at-home mothers, who take care of the kids while their spouse works. There are about 81/2 million Americans who want jobs but cannot find them or have become frustrated and essentially given up looking. About 21/2 million Americans are in jail. All of the above add up to about 110 million people, out of a population of 318 million. That is 35 percent of the population with no income, and therefore no tax liability.

There are also more than a million disabled military veterans, with many of them at the poverty level. so they don’t earn enough to pay taxes.

I would hardly call any of the above “free-riders,” since they do not have any or enough income on which to pay taxes. Yes, there are some cheats working in the gray economy. But it doesn’t come anywhere close to the 45 percent Mr. Hayes and others claim.

Richard Pulsifer

Las Vegas

Paper money

I think it is a wonderful idea to get rid of all paper and coin forms of money, not just the $100 dollar bill (“Government’s dash to bash cash,” Wednesday Review-Journal editorial). Just think of the ramifications.

Such a move would mean that all of the so-called disenfranchised people would have to get personal ID cards in order to conduct most monetary transactions, especially in Las Vegas. What excuse would the Democratic Party then have to showing an ID card before voting?

Gary Desler

Henderson